Disintegration of Aam Aadmi Party

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in last one week saw two resignations from the oldest party members, Ashutosh and Ashish Khetan, with both of them citing “personal reasons” for their exit. The back-to-back resignations have, however, hinted at brewing internal rivalry withing the party. 

Khetan and Ashutosh are the latest to join the list of leaders who have parted their ways from the party. Both of them were among the founding members of the party and shared a great rapport with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. With the exit of these two senior members, the party, which emerged out of the anti-corruption movement, has lost most of its founding members. 

Khetan, who had resigned from the Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) in April this year, explained his decision in a Facebook post on Wednesday. “Early this year I made my decision to quit active politics after much deliberation and in consultation with family and close friends. However, since both the party and the government were beset with a series of crises, I waited for an opportune time to formalize my decision. I had also informed the party leadership about my decision, on more than one occasion,” he wrote on his Facebook page. 

Sources in the party claimed that discontentment among senior leaders grew after AAP nominated city-based businessman Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant ND Gupta for three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi, along with senior leader Sanjay Singh.

AAP sources said Khetan wanted to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the New Delhi parliamentary seat that he had lost to BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi in 2014.

But his demand was not being accepted by the leadership and this could have been one of the reasons for his decision to quit the party, they said.

“Both of them — Khetan and Ashutosh — wanted a RS ticket from the party and when it was denied, both of them decided to part ways,” a senior AAP leader said.

But this is not the first time that the party has witnessed a dissent within the party members. The cracks became visible in 2014 when one of its foundig members, Shazia Ilmi, ended her association, citing “disagreements with the leadership” and lack of “inner-party democracy”. Ilmi then joined the BJP after her exit. Sources in the party claimed that this was the first time the talks about the “leadership” began to surface. 

But the party witnessed a major jolt when two of its active founding members, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, were sacked from the party. That was the time when the party was divided into two groups. In a public spat, that got ugly, both Yadav and Bhushan were expelled from the party, who later went on to form Swaraj Abhiyan. When DNA contacted Yadav, he said he has little interest in talking about the subject now.

And as the tenure of the ruling party increased, the number of members began to fall down. Accusing Arvind Kejriwal of indulging in “gutter politics”, another founding member, Mayank Gandhi, quit the party. He recently reacted on Khetan’s exit and said that the party should come back to its original principles. “Every loss has a lesson. The AAP must learn that when it works on principles, it wins, but when it compromises, it loses. If AAP comes back to its original principles, I promise to work unselfishly for making it win (sic),” Gandhi wrote on Twitter on Friday.

Next it was the “blue-eyed” boy of AAP — Kapil Mishra, who soon turned rebel and was sacked from the cabinet after he alleged that he had seen Kejriwal receive Rs 2 crore in “illegal cash” from Cabinet minister Satyendra Jain. Since then, Mishra has been seen criticising the party on various issues. “All of us joined the party for a common cause. We wanted to develop Delhi and make it a world-class Capital, without getting into the dirty politics. But the party soon lost its track and got involved into various cases of corruption. All the popular public faces are out from the party and those who are left are the ones facing corruption charges. There is no motivation left in the party and the recent incidents have proved it that Kejriwal is no longer a leader,” Mishra told DNA.

Party’s poet and another important member, Kumar Vishwas, who is still a part of the unit has also drifted away from Kejriwal. He was slowly dragged out of the party’s circle where important decisions were taken. Vishwas went public with his fight against party chief Kejriwal as the party ignored him and named its member Sanjay Singh, a Delhi-based businessman with past links to Congress, Sushil Gupta and Narain Dass Gupta as nominees for the Rajya Sabha. 

Vishwas said he was being punished for speaking the “truth”. He said Kejriwal had once said that he will “finish” him but never let him be a “martyr”. “I want to congratulate Kejriwal that I have accepted my martyrdom,” he had told reporters at his residence. Slamming Kejriwal for nominating ND Gupta and Sushil Gupta to the Raya Sabha, Vishwas said that he wanted to congratulate AAP volunteers that their voice has been heard in choosing the “great revolutionaries”. 

AAP’s Delhi convener, Gopal Rai, in a video released in January, also claimed that after the MCD polls in April last year, “there were attempts to bring down the government and Kumar Vishwas was the principal mover and at the centre of those conspiracies”. The series of attack came a day after the AAP had revealed the names of its three candiadates for Rajya Sabha seats.

TROUBLE STARTING IN PUNJAB?

In Punjab, where the AAP managed to win four Lok Sabha seats in the last Lok Sabha elections and is the main Opposition in the state Assembly, efforts will be made to enhance the influence of the party, AAP leader Sanay Singh said. “We would like to increase our footprint in Punjab by winning more than four seats this time,” one of the AAP leader said, adding the party may also contest in some seats in Gujarat where the organisation is strong. But the AAP unit in Punjab has also been facing trouble. Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Kanwar Sandhu are among the eight MLAs who have raised a banner of revolt against the AAP central and state leadership, following Khaira’s removal from the post of the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly last month. The dissident group first held a volunteers’ convention in Bathinda, declared “anti-party” by the AAP leadership, and then also decided to announce their separate organisational set-up in the state.

The majority of office-bearers in Punjab unit then demanded a disciplinary action against dissident MLAs Khaira and Sandhu for indulging in “anti-party” activities. The AAP also removed Boota Singh Bairagi from the official list of media panellists due to his acts of indiscipline. “Bairagi was warned about indiscipline in the past as well, but he did not fall in line,” said the state unit co-president.

GEARING UP FOR 2019 ELECTIONS

The party that witnessed a phenomenal win in Delhi Assembly elections in 2015 is now eyeing on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The party has decided to contest the elections in a focused manner, restricting itself to fielding candidates in around 100 seats, primarily in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi among the states in north India. “The party feels that there is no point fighting for all seats. So, plans are to contest around 80 to 100 seats where we are in a better position to influence the results,” said AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who is also the in-charge of party’s Uttar Pradesh and Bihar units. The party will also field candidates for some Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh too, AAP plans to field candidates in some seats.

In Uttar Pradesh, the party is looking to contest for 10 to 15 seats, Singh said. In Delhi, the AAP has announced in-charges for five of the seven Lok Sabha constituencies. They have already actively engaged with the local cadre in organising meetings and campaigns.

Haryana is another state where the AAP aspires to open its account after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Party leaders believe that voters of Haryana, which is home state of Kejriwal and where local leader Navin Jaihind has been involved in grass-root organisational work, are ready to respond favourably to AAP in the coming general elections.

LEGAL TROUBLE AHEAD FOR AAP

Following a directive from the Delhi High Court, the Election Commission is hearing afresh the case related to disqualification of 20 AAP MLAs for allegedly holding office-of-profit by virtue of their appointment as parliamentary secretaries. The EC had, on January 19, recommended the disqualification of the 20 AAP MLAs. President Ram Nath Kovind had accepted the poll panel’s opinion the next day, but the EC’s move was quashed by the Delhi High Court, terming it “bad in law”.

The Delhi AAP lawmakers had moved the plea in EC on May 16 for cross-examination of Patel and officials of the Assembly and city government to prove that they were not holding any office-of-profit by being appointed as parliamentary secretaries. The 20 MLAs include, Adarsh Shastri (Dwarka), Alka Lamba (Chandni Chowk), Anil Bajpai (Gandhi Nagar), Avtar Singh (Kalkaji), Kailash Gahlot (Najafgarh), who is also a minister, Madan Lal (Kasturba Nagar), Manoj Kumar (Kondli), Naresh Yadav (Mehrauli), Nitin Tyagi (Laxmi Nagar), and Praveen Kumar (Jangpura).

Others are: Rajesh Gupta (Wazirpur), Rajesh Rishi (Janakpuri), Sanjeev Jha (Burari), Sarita Singh (Rohtas Nagar), Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar), Sharad Kumar (Narela), Shiv Charan Goel (Moti Nagar), Sukhbir Singh (Mundka), Vijendar Garg (Rajinder Nagar), and Jarnail Singh (Tilak Nagar). On July 23, the EC had adjourned its hearing as the AAP lawmakers from the city had moved the Delhi High Court challenging the poll panel’s decision rejecting their demand to cross-examine the petitioner who had sought their removal as lawmakers.

DELHI CM ARVIND KEJRIWAL

A former bureaucrat and the current 7th Chief Minister of Delhi, Kejriwal joined politics in 2012. His first stint as the Capital’s CM in 2013 lasted only for a brief period of about 50 days. He came back to power in 2015 after winning 67 of the 70 constituencies during the Delhi Assembly elections. In October 2016, he had released a video asking the PM Modi to prove the authenticity of the surgical strikes against Pakistan in response to Uri attack. He was hailed as a hero for this action by the Pakistani media

(From L-R) Yogendra Yadav, Ashutosh, Kapil Mishra, Kumar Vishwa and Prashant Bhushan

YOGENDRA YADAV

Rebel leader, Yogendra Yadav, was expelled from the party in April, 2015, for his “anti-party activities”. According to AAP, Yadav was expelled for “gross indiscipline and violation of code of conduct of the party”

ASHUTOSH

AAP leader and former journalist Ashutosh resigned from the party on August 15 this year, citing personal reasons. He thanked the party on Twitter. However, CM Kejriwal refused to accpet his resignation

KAPIL MISHRA

Last year in May, AAP decided to sack its Water Minister Kapil Mishra from the Cabinet. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said that Mishra was removed due to issues in managing the city’s water supply

KUMAR VISHWAS

AAP’s in-charge for its Rajasthan unit, Kumar Vishwas, was removed by the party in April this year. He was replaced by Deepak Bajpai, another AAP leader. The party had claimed that Vishwas was not taking interest in the affairs of the state unit

PRASHANT BHUSHAN

One of the founding members of AAP, Prashant Bhushan was also expelled from the party when Yogendra Yadav was sacked, and for the same reason. The duo had later launched Swaraj Abhiyan

AAP’S ORIGINS: ANTI-CORRUPTION CRUSADE

• Aam Aadmi Party was formally launched on 26 November 2012, and is currently the ruling party of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. It came into existence following differences between activists Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare regarding whether or not to politicise the popular India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, which  started in the Capital
   
• The IAC had been demanding a Jan Lokpal Bill since 2011. Anna Hazare preferred that the movement should remain politically unaligned while Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal felt the failure of the agitation route necessitated a direct political involvement. The party made its electoral debut in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, where it emerged as the second-largest party, winning 28 of the 70 seats
   
• In the 2015 Delhi Legislative Assembly election, AAP won 67 of the 70 seats in the assembly. Among two national political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 3 seats, while the Indian National Congress scored none. Kejriwal had support from some anti-corruption movement activists, such as Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan, but was opposed by others such as Kiran Bedi and Santosh Hegde

(From L-R) Shazia Ilmi, Ashish Khetan and Mayank Gandhi

SHAZIA ILMI

In May, 2014, AAP received a major blow when one of its founding members, Shazia Ilmi, resigned from the party, citing differences with the party leadership. She had also slammed Delhi CM’s “jail politics”. “My decision is triggered by the lack of inner-party democracy,” she had said

ASHISH KHETAN

On August 22, 2018, AAP leader Ashish Khetan wrote on Twitter, “I had resigned in April, to join the legal profession. That is all. Not interested in rumours.” He also wrote, “...not involved in active politics at the moment”. Reportedly, he cited “frustration” due to the tussle between the Centre and the AAP-led govt as one of the reasons

MAYANK GANDHI

The Aam Aadmi Party’s key Maharashtra functionary, Mayank Gandhi, had quit the party’s national executive in November, 2015, by saying that he was “losing interest in politics”. He had also accused party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of indulging in “gutter politics and destroying the party”