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Kumar Vishwas was ready to topple Kejriwal

According to party sources, poet-turned-senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, along with Mishra and 33 other party MLAs, was ready to topple Kejriwal and take over as the party chief.

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Arvind Kejriwal with Kumar Vishwas
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Even as sacked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Kapil Mishra was triggering a controversy by levelling serious corruption allegations against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, another storm, threatening the party's top leadership, was already brewing.

According to party sources, poet-turned-senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas, along with Mishra and 33 other party MLAs, was ready to topple Kejriwal and take over as the party chief. "Following the party's defeat in the Delhi Municipal polls, Vishwas and Mishra had held a meeting with other party legislators, wherein they planned to topple Kejriwal," a senior party leader claimed.

"They had managed to convince the MLAs that the party's EVM tampering claim was baseless and there was a need of change in the party leadership," he said.

The move, however, came to the knowledge of Kejriwal, who managed to pacify Vishwas and made him the party's Rajasthan in-charge. "The move was strategically taken as Kejriwal has been repeatedly targeted for orchestrating the exit of other two founding members of AAP — Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav," another party leader said.

"Once Vishwas stepped back, the overall plan began to unravel. Most of the 34 MLAs pledged allegiance to Kejriwal," he added.

Sources said that at the time, the then Water Minister Mishra was not ready to change the narrative and had begun plotting against both Kejriwal and Vishwas. "He started gathering several party MLAs to start another crisis within the party but could not succeed as he was sacked from the Cabinet within seven days of Vishwas being named as the Rajasthan party chief," sources said.

Meanwhile, party MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan, who was reportedly aware of Vishwas' strategy, came out in the public and termed him a "BJP agent". Khan was later expelled from the party. "Khan, being a loyalist of Kejriwal, was later inducted in various committees of the Delhi Assembly," sources said.

ANALYSIS

Ugly infighting within AAP has marred its image. The party won the elections on an anti-corruption plank, but with new charges of corruption and nepotism surfacing every day, the party stands to lose its reputation. Above all, the party is going through severe internal crises following its humiliating defeat in the municipal polls.

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