New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal resigns as AAP convener ahead of national executive meeting

TNN

New Delhi, 04 Mar 2015: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday resigned as party convener, just before the party’s crucial national executive meeting.

 

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) 21-member national executive is meeting here today and is likely to decide on the fate of two of its dissident leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.

 

The AAP is embroiled in an ugly internal strife barely a month after forming a majority government in national capital New Delhi.

 

There is unconfirmed speculation that the duo of Bhushan and Yadav may be eased out of the national executive, which is the AAP’s top policy body.

 

Bhushan is a leading Supreme Court lawyer and an AAP founder, while Yogendra Yadav is a well-known political pundit who is also a part of the nine-member decision-making Political Affairs Committee (PAC)

 

The decision, if carried out, would mean that Bhushan and Yadav would cease to be decision makers in a party that is sure to expand its wings in the country once it cements its foundation in Delhi.

 

And if Bhushan and Yadav take their ouster from the PAC as a slight, they could exit from the Aam Aadmi Party.

 

There are reports of a majority of the national executive being in favour of the ouster of the duo, as they feel both have brought a bad name to the AAP by talking about the lack of so-called internal democracy in the party.

 

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is not attending the national executive meeting, as he is flying to Bengaluru for naturopathy treatment for ten days to recover from diabetes and a consistent bout of cough.

 

Kejriwal has said that he is deeply hurt and pained by what is going on in the party, and believes that it is a betrayal of the trust that the people of Delhi have reposed in the AAP.

 

He said that he would not allow the "people’s trust to be broken".