The fissures in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) further widened on Thursday as the reconciliation talks between the two warring factions collapsed following which two prominent AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan accused AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s camp of trying to force them to resign from the National Executive of the party.
In an open letter to Kejriwal two days ahead of AAP’s crucial National Council meeting, Bhushan and Yadav said the message conveyed to them during reconciliation talks was that either they should resign gracefully or face removal from the National Executive.
“Slowly it dawned on us that the principal intent of these talks is to secure our resignation. The bottom line of interlocutors from your side was that the two of us must resign from the National Executive. We were told that this is your personal insistence. We were told that you are not willing to be the National Convener as long as the two of us are members of the National Executive,” Bhushan and Yadav said in the letter.
AAP leader Ashutosh, known to be a Kejriwal loyalist, said talks have failed as Bhushan and Yadav are adamant on the removal of Kejriwal as the National Convener. “Talks failed. Prashant and Yogendra adamant on Arvind’s removal from the chair of national convener,” Ashutosh tweeted.
In another tweet, he said, “Party is willing to accept all demands of Prashant/Yogendra, not removal of Arvind. Why PB/YY are insistent on Arvind’s removalIJ I am amazed.”
In their letter, Yadav and Bhushan, who were already removed from party’s powerful Political Affairs Committee, said: “This is exactly what you had said when demanding our removal from PAC.”
The talks had begun last week with an aim to bridging the trust deficit between the two groups. In the letter, Yadav and Bhushan said they never made any attempt to dislodge Kejriwal from convener’s position in the party and that they always extended whatever support they could give to him.
“We have been compelled to communicate to you through this open letter. It is ten days since the two of us asked you for an appointment on your return from Bangalore. But you have not yet managed to find the time slot for us,” Bhushan and Yadav said in the letter.