Confirming rumours of a parallel meeting of the National Council of the Aam Aadmi Party being held a day before the body’s crucial meet on Saturday, council member from Amritsar Ashish Talwar on Wednesday asked party convener Arvind Kejriwal to set up an enquiry. In a letter to Kejriwal, Talwar said that a meeting has been called on the ‘pretext’ of having discussion on swaraj and internal democracy a day before the official date of the NC meeting. He alleged that some “deep conspiracy for vested interests was on to destabilise the party”. Subsequently, party veteran Shanti Bhushan, whose name has been continually put forward for setting up this meeting, issued a Press statement denying his involvement.
Talwar claimed of having received repeated phone calls as well as text messages from different numbers inviting him to attend a discussion on March 27. “I have been receiving calls as well as messages from different numbers to come to Delhi one-day prior to the NC meeting on the pretext of having discussion on swaraj. They have been calling repeatedly to confirm the presence on March 27 so that the lodging and food arrangements can be made in advance as over 124 members have already confirmed their participation in the meeting where deliberations would be held to ‘save swaraj’ and internal democracy in the party,” said Talwar.
Furthermore, Talwar alleged that some “deep conspiracy for vested interests” was going on to destabilise the party and went on to name a few people accusing them of “floating” the information. He asked Kejriwal to be “vigilant” and enquire about the matter so as to stop the “conspirators” from anti-party activities. Reacting to the developments, senior party leader Ashutosh said that a “lot of members” have raised this issue. “We’ve told them they are free to raise this issue on March 28,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shanti Bhushan issued a statement saying, “My attention has been drawn to some news reports that I have called a meeting of some members of the National Council of the Aam Aadmi Party one day before the official meeting on March 28 and that I am bearing their travel and other expenses. This is not only completely false but appears to be mischievous also. I have neither called any such meeting nor would be attending any if called by some other person. I shall only attend the official meeting on March 28, 2015 as a member of the National Council and express my views there.”