Aam Aadmi Party’s internal lokpal Admiral l Ramdas had earlier shot off a letter to the party after being asked not to attend crucial meeting of National Council to “avoid confrontation”. Yogendra Yadav made the letter public on social media ahead of the NE meet on Saturday, saying that he conveyed his “apologies” and sought Ramdas’ permission in doing so.
In the letter, Ramdas mentioned the SMS he had received from AAP General Secretary Pankaj Gupta, on which several reasons were stated by the party for its decision, as it was “party internal affair” and “as indicated, the earlier term of lokpal needed to be renewed in the next NE (National Executive meet)”. Gupta also wrote that only MlAs and MPs have been invited, apart from authorised NC members to the meeting and “no one else has been invited”. “So (we) request you to not come to the meeting to avoid any confrontation,” he wrote.
This came days after a section of AAP leaders expressed their displeasure over his continuance as the party ombudsman for his letter last month criticising the leadership. In a letter to PAC, AAP’s highest decision-making body, ahead of the National Executive meeting on February 26, Ramdas noted that there were two camps emerging within the top leadership and had asked the party to consider ‘one man, one post’ arrangement. Miffed over the snub, Ramdas said he had visited from his village in Maharashtra to attend the meet, however, he would not attend the meet to “honour” AAP’s request.