More than a week after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced their expulsion; party rebels Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday claimed that they have not received any official communication from the party about the same.
Yadav, one of the founding members of the fledgling party, claimed that he learnt only from the media that they have been expelled. “But after the show-cause notice, no official e-mail or any sort of expulsion order has been given to me,” he said.
He further went on to indirectly suggest that he still considered himself to be associated with the party in some form. “I consider myself as a part of a movement. When I was office-bearer of the party — even then I used to say that this is not a party, it’s a movement, and a movement which has temporarily taken the shape of a party,” said Yadav.
“I am very much with that party, with that idea of the party, I am very much with that movement and Swaraj Abhiyan is nothing but an attempt to relive and to reignite those hopes which were associated with what became the Aam Aadmi Party,” he maintained.
With the party being mired in controversy not only with a Rajasthani farmer’s mysterious death at their rally against the controversial land Acquisition Bill but also with their law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar’s alleged fake degree, Yadav didn’t miss the opportunity to highlight that he had alerted the party about the case two months ago. “We had said that four things needed to be investigated and Jitender Singh Tomar’s case was one of them which we wanted the party to investigate about two months ago. Had the party done the investigation then, I guess we would not have been in this embarrassing situation now,” Yadav said.
“No proper mail has come to us citing the reason for the expulsion from the party. Usually, the show cause notice, an expulsion order is sent reasoning the expulsion from a party or a group. The news of expulsion was also received through media,” a former AAP member said.
Moreover, a “non-political” parallel group — Swaraj Abhiyan was an initiative launched by the Prashant Bhushan-Yogendra Yadav duo to garner support for the movement that formed the basic idea for the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Yogender Yadav, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha were expelled from the AAP on the night of April 20 on charges of carrying out anti-party activities putting an end to a month-long drama of rifts between various factions.
