AAP rebels float campaign, say no new party for now

Gurgaon, Aam Admi Party (AAP) rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan today stopped short of announcing a new political outfit but said they were starting a non-political movement — Swaraj Abhiyaan — to revive the founding principles of AAP and cleanse it.
The two, in their first formal meeting “Swaraj Samwad”, slammed AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal for his “dictatorial behaviour” in running the party with the support of “chaukri” (coterie). Yadav said if they failed to see results in the first six months of the movement, they might form a new party.
Bhushan claimed that those who had organised today’s meet had reportedly been removed from AAP. “Their tolerance and pro-democratic behaviour is evident from the fact that we have been removed from the party for organising this dialogue. Freedom of speech is what started this party and here we are being punished for ‘samwad’ (discussion). If truth is a crime then hang us.”
The rebel leaders did not receive a clear mandate from their supporters to split the party. As many as 65% of around 2,200 people who attended today’s meeting voted in favour of staying with the party and working on reviving principles, while 25 per cent wanted a new party.
A majority of them suggested improving party functioning through dialogue, rejecting the idea of engineering a split in AAP.
The two accused party “high-ups”, including Kejriwal, of departing from the founding principles and “killing” democracy. They said they supported alternative politics and may form a group to fight the “one-man raj”.
Yadav he said he had no differences with Kejriwal but if raising questions to ensure democratic functioning in the party amounted to rebellion then he could be called a rebel. “Today is not the day to form a new party, we need to prepare,” he said.
Deliberations focused on the course the party leadership needed to take in view of the party “leadership deviating from the purpose for which AAP was formed”.
“I know many of you feel that forming a new party is the solution but we are not ready for it because if we go ahead with it then it will see the same chaos that AAP is witnessing today,” Yadav said. Bhushan said they “won’t form a new party as of now”, but did not rule out a future possibility. “This is not Arvind Kejriwal’s party. Yes, he worked hard but so did thousands of others,” he added.
The meeting was attended by AAP leaders Shanti Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha, besides party workers mainly from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Uttarakhand. Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar was the only legislator present at the meeting.