Sowing the seeds of a new political party in the future, the dissident group of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday announced its future course of action wherein it appointed a national convener for the newly conceptualised “Swaraj Abhiyaan” and taking out a country-wide Swaraj Yatra. Anand Kumar, an academic from the JNU, who was expelled from the AAP National Executive along with Yadav, Bhushan and Ajit Jha, will head the Swaraj Abhiyaan movement.
The group — which had a meeting of over 100 of its leaders and volunteers — however, refused to term it as formation of a new party and insisted that they had still not quit the AAP. Yadav, on Wednesday, said that it would follow the decorum which was not followed in the AAP and lay emphasis on State autonomy with a federal structure where local units will be allowed to take their decisions, bring the organisation under the ambit of RTI and follow a strict code of conduct.
The group also launched a helpline no. 7210222333. For the time being six former National Executive members — Yadav, Bhushan, Anand Kumar, Jha, Christina Samy, Rakesh Sinha and Vishal Sharma lathe — and AAP MlA from Timarpur Pankaj Pushkar will take decisions on important issues till the organisation gets a formal structure.
They also announced a 100-member steering committee, which will consult people across the nation to decide the future course of action. Decisions will be taken through “collective leadership”. There would be no slogans of living individuals. The organisation will declare its donations and expenditure on its website.
Taking a jibe at the AAP and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Yadav said the new organisation will not indulge in personality or cult-oriented politics and also reflect the diversity of gender, region and other groups. “We are not quitting the AAP. We are carriers of the founding principles of the party. If they want to sack us, let them. We have never worked against the party. There is a difference between being anti-party and being disliked by the party leadership,” Yadav said.
Bhushan also maintained an ambivalent stand and said the new organisation has come to take forward principles on which the AAP was built, which it deviated from. “Swaraj Abhiyaan is for the purpose of taking forward the objectives, founding principles on which the AAP was founded. It is true that Swaraj Abhiyaan will be an independent organisation and the committee that has been announced is the beginining of that separate organisation.
He added that the functioning of the organisation will be analysed. If it met the standards of the principles of Swaraj then it can be made into a political party. Responding to an impending disciplinary action from the party, Bhushan quoted from Alice in Wonderland. “let the execution take place, the trial can follow”. “Elections will take place and the new organisation will work in a democratic manner,” Yadav said. Dismissing reports that some AAP MlAs could join the rebel group, Yadav said they did not believe in politics of horse-trading or breaking away MlAs.