In a fallout of the expulsion of four senior leaders, including Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), four senior office bearers of the party’s Thane district and city units resigned from their posts, as a first step towards quitting the party and joining the new political outfit to be floated by the two expelled party leaders.
Through a joint letter to AAP’s Maharashtra unit convenor Subhash Ware, the party’s Thane district-city unit convenor Vikrant Karnik, treasurer Hemant Sharma, Thane Assembly constituency convenor Subrato Bhatacharya and convenor for the Ovla-Majiwada Assembly constituency Samir Pradhan put in their papers in protest against the manner which the party’s senior office bearers, including Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, were expelled from the party. In their letter, the four office bearers said that the AAP’s central leadership at the party’s national executive meeting held in the capital recently bulldozed a resolution through, expelling Yadav, Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the party, without following a proper procedure or even holding a discussion on the issue.
“There is no democracy left in the AAP. How can anyone work in a party where a handful of leaders humiliate others who do not agree with them and take decisions in an autocratic mannerIJ, the four outgoing office bearers asked in their resignation letter. The resignations by four office bearers of the Thane district-city unit came after 400-odd supporters of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan came together to launch a non-political outfit “Swaraj Abhiyan” which will merge tself with the new political party proposed to be set by Yadav in the coming months.
“The like-minded party workers from different parts of the state, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Akola were present at the meeting held at Thane yesterday. We will be holding one more such meeting in Pune on May 4 where we will discuss future plan of action,” AAP’s Thane-based senior functionary and Yadav’s supporter Samir Pradhan told The Pioneer on Monday evening.
Pradhan, who is among the four AAP’s office bearers who have quit their posts, said: “We are in touch with Yadavji. He will be touring the country for the next two months to meet like-minded people and decide on modalities for setting up a new national political party. He has advised us to either join him in national tour or undertake similar tours in the State”. Pradhan said that he and three AAP functionaries, who quit their party posts, would take a call on resigning from the primary membership of the AAP, in the coming weeks.