The man in the eye of a political storm slated to return to the capital today has wreaked havoc in New Delhi. Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has been missing from action since March 5, neatly escaping the belligerent fallout of his war with Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, ousted from the party's Parliamentary Affairs Committee on March 4. He has been sheltered in Bengaluru's Jindal Naturecure Institute for naturopathy treatments for high sugar levels and cough, the public was told. There was even a photo-op of Kejriwal practising yoga at his retreat in Bengaluru.
Kejriwal's flight was seen as a political tactic, to escape immediate ugliness. However, as matters refuse to die down, his party has stopped scrambling for cover and is smoothening things for his arrival.
Under attack for purportedly trying to poach Congress MLAs to form the government in Delhi last year the party has been trying to spin the many stings in its favour. First there was the telephone recording between former AAP MLA Rajesh Garg and Kejriwal where the two discuss how to break away from Congress MLAs, then another by AAP minority-wing member Shahid Azad where Kejriwal is apparently saying: " Muslims are watching that it is only AAP that can stop the juggernaut of Modi".
AAP supporters have said that the second sting only proves that Kejriwal doesn't give tickets on the basis of religion. Meanwhile, AAP leaders admit that they met Congressmen. The desperate hunt for support in 2014 is recast into a noble mission to stop BJP. A senior leader said that in politics, AAP could not be "untouchables". In 2014, they were fighting for their very existence. The leader denied that the party's National Executive took a decision to not reach out to the Congress for support, which Bhushan had emphasised on in his damning letter to the NE.
This leader also framed the conversation with Garg as Kejriwal trying to keep the flock together, saying, "Many MLAs were jittery and kept suggesting measure to form government. Arvind had to placate them else they could have been broken from AAP by BJP."
Citing BJP as a major concern he said that post the Lok Sabha elections, Kejriwal wrote to the Lieutenant Governor saying that they were looking to form government in Delhi and would talk to people for support. The leader also mentioned a press conference that Kejriwal held later that they would go to any measures to stop the BJP and speak to anyone for support.
Sanjay Singh, too, referred to this press conference being held in 2014. In this context, Singh and other leaders ask, what wrong has the party done?
Singh admitted to meeting former Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan later last year, at a senior unnamed journalists house in Noida, but added that there were no incentives given to Congress MLAs to support AAP. Only the possibility of reforming government before the Assembly was dissolved, was discussed.
The senior leader too agreed, saying that no official decisions were taken and it was the Congress MLAs, desperate to be in government, who sent out many feelers to AAP and BJP.
Meanwhile, Khan has been soaking in much media attention by threatening to reveal his "sting" on Singh, allegedly a recording of this meeting he made with his wristwatch. He said that AAP had offered two ministerial positions to Congress MLAs for support. However, after two days of shouting from the rafters, Khan is yet to make this recording public, a fact for which Singh took the media to task, for running news against him without the actual recording. The party is saying that there is no such sting.
On Friday it emerged that senior AAP leader Ashish Khetan had met Congressman Ahmed Patel post the Lok Sabha debacle in 2014. Though Khetan remained unavailable for comment and Patel said that he could not remember the meeting, sources high up in the party said that it was highly possible that many such meetings took place, as Khetan and Patel had been close for years.
Meanwhile, Yogendra Yadav has capitalised on this messy state of affairs to prove his AAP credentials. He posted on Facebook that the party must stand united in the face of the conspiracies against it. However, on Saturday, the Haryana AAP unit presented him with a tray of salt implying that he should not be a 'namak haram'.
On Monday, as Kejriwal takes charge, he will have to show the public how he can emerge from this clean. Much now hinges on the crucial National Council meeting on March 28, where this internal battle will either blow up further, or just might be resolved.
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