With brickbatting going on within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), its core member Prashant Bhushan too admitted organisational deficiencies within the unit as another member Sanjay Singh indicated persuading Shazia Ilmi to bring her back into the party fold. Ilmi had quit the party on May 24, alleging it of lacking ‘inner democracy’. Another prominent leader of the party, Kumar Vishwas, however left the meeting shortly after its commencement citing health reasons.
Amidst growing dissidence within the fledgling party, particularly after its lok Sabha poll debacle, the AAP began its three-
day National Executive Committee (NEC) in the Capital on Friday. The series of resignations and dissidences by prominent leaders like Yogendra Yadav, Shazia Ilmi, Ashwini Upadhyay and Ashok Aggarwal merged as a big worry for the leaders in the meeting. Speaking on this, senior party leader, Bhushan said, “In any party there are bound to be problems and that’s why the national executive meet was called. The party will also reconsider the resignations given by several party leaders in recent times.”
Once a prominent face of the rookie party, Ilmi was also discussed in the meeting, said leaders. Sources within the party said that Anjali Damania has been given the responsibility to persuade Ilmi back in the AAP team. “We will be happy is Shazia works with us again. On Saturday, the resignations will be discussed further,” said Sanjay Singh, senior party leader, AAP.
While the leaders analysed the poor performance of the party in the general assembly elections where it won only four out of the 440 seats it had fought from, senior party leader, Bhushan, said that an organisational restructuring of the party was discussed. “There have been organisational problems in our party. We are working on a party overhaul,” said Bhushan.
The war of words between senior party leaders Manish Sisodia and Yogendra Yadav which came to the fore on Thursday, was also reflected in the meeting. Sources said, during the meeting which began at 1 pm and ended after 7 pm, Yadav and Sisodia sat at a distance from each other and did not talk with each other. Besides, a section of leaders have also criticised Yadav for his step.
On Yadav’s resignation, Singh said, “The differences between Sisodia and Yadav should not have come out in the open. The Yadav’s issue was not discussed in the meeting. However, we have not accepted any resignation so far.” This means that even Navin Jaihind’s resignation from the NEC has not been accepted so far.