A beleaguered Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal has come in the midst of internal party conflicts which came out in the open on Wednesday after his U-turn on Government formation in the Capital. If the lok Sabha poll debacle was not enough, the former Delhi Chief Minister is now embattled in his own party with differences among its members.
The series of contradictory decisions taken by the party’s face, Kejriwal, over a span of three days in itself is reflective of the pressure being imposed on the leader by his party members. The party’s volte-face is significant considering it had always maintained that it wanted a re-election in Delhi since the day it quit. In fact, it had even approached the Supreme Court with an appeal to dissolve the House.
The repeated change of stand by the AAP has left many considering the party as an ‘indecisive’ and ‘confused’ one. Till Sunday, the party’s official stand was that it wanted a re-poll. But on Monday it drafted a letter to Delhi lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung asking him to delay the dissolution of the House by a week. For that Kejirwal along with AAP’s number two, Manish Sisodia, also met Jung on Tuesday, although calling it a ‘courtesy call’. The stance changed yet again on Wednesday when Kejriwal announced that it no longer wanted to form a Government in the national Capital.
Sources within the party said that a few members of the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) were vehemently opposed to Kejriwal’s decision to go ahead with Government formation in the Capital. “leaders like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav strongly supported re-elections in Delhi. But there were also a group of MlAs who wanted AAP to form the Government with Congress’ support as the party lacked funds and even the energy to fight a third elections,” said a senior party member.
Interestingly, prominent leaders of the rookie party like Kumar Vishwas who is also a PAC member and Shazia Ilmi have also preferred to stay away from the party’s crucial meetings post lok Sabha elections. Dissidence in the party has not been a new thing when it comes to AAP. In the past few months, the party has seen some of its key members like Madhu Bhaduri, Ashok Aggarwal and Ashwini Upadhyay leave the party alleging it of resting power only on few of its top leaders.
The party has also come under severe criticism for repeatedly using the ‘referendum’ method to reach out to the masses. It had first, sought for a referendum to seek opinion from the public on whether to take Congress support to form the Government in the December Assembly polls. On Tuesday, it again sought for a referendum on the same issue in a letter written to Jung.