With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gearing up for the National Council (NC) meeting on March 28, allegations of conspiracies against party convener Arvind Kejriwal are flying thick and fast in the party. According to party members, a massive campaign is being conducted to defeat Kejriwal’s resolution in NC. Meanwhile, the party’s North West Mumbai National Council, in a meeting, passed a resolution to reinstall senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan in the Political Affairs Committee (PAC).
However, sources said that personal text and Whatsapp messages are being sent to volunteers and NC members to “ensure that they vote in favour of Yadav and Bhushan” in the NC meeting. Sources added that wife of party ombudsman Admiral Ramdas was also appealing to NC members to let Ramdas “chair” the NC meeting on March 28. There were allegations thrown at AAP founder member Rakesh Parekh as well for being instigating NC members to vote against Arvind Kejriwal through his blog on social media.
Meanwhile, the AAP is likely to hold its National Executive (NE) meeting to finalise the agenda for its National Council meeting. The meeting of the 21-member NE, which includes top members of the party like its chief Arvind Kejriwal and beleaguered leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, will be held in the middle of next week to decide as to what issues the party will take up in the National Council meeting scheduled on Saturday. However, sources said that it is not clear whether Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal will attend the meeting.
The last two meetings of the NE were stormy affairs with the second of these witnessing the ouster of Bhushan and Yadav from AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, its highest decision-making body. The AAP National Council has over 300 members and has to meet once a year. The last NC meeting took place in February last year.