Tale of AAP rift: When Prashant Bhushan's sister dissuaded NRI supporters to fund party

New Delhi, March 10: It looks like ongoing crisis in Aam Aadmi Party will not get over soon. Hours after party officially provided reasons why it removed two founding members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from political affair committee, a new twist in the tale of AAP rift has come to fore.

Reportedly, present tussle between Bhushan, Yogendra camp and Arvind Kejriwal groups is not new. The wrangling started even before fledgling party fought Delhi Assembly election this year. According to a India Today report, Prashant Bhushan's sister Shalini Gupta who worked as a coordinator for AAP's Global group had written couple of e-mails to overseas supporters.

Through the mails which were written in the first week of the January, Gupta had urged supporters that think twice before donating fund for the party. In one of the mails she wrote, "Since all of you are important stakeholders in the party, donating your time and money, some straight talk is warranted".

She also questioned party for giving tickets to candidates with chequered records.

India today report quotes her January 5 e-mail as, "My suggestion is we need to be very careful of the constituency we adopt. There are many candidates in the list this time who would not meet the party clean politics standard."

However, party reacted sharply over the issue and said it consciously decided to ignore the matter as election was round the corner at that time.

Party justified unceremonious removal of Yogendra, Bhushan

Earlier, in the day after senior AAP leaders made an official media statement justifying their removal, Yogendra Yadav reacted to it by tweeting about it. He tweeted and welcomed the step taken by the party and said that he hopes this will end all the slander and allegations against them.

Yogendra Yadav also said in his tweet, "Hope no more coercion of party functionaries and Delhi MLAs on this issue. Hope PB and my response will also be duly publicised by the party media. Hope party's website will be opened for all volunteers responses."

The widening internal rift in the AAP today again came to the fore with the party top brass launching a scathing attack on Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, accusing them of working for the party's defeat and maligning the image of Arvind Kejriwal.

In a first official statement by top party leaders since the infighting came out in the open, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Transport Minister Gopal Rai, party's General Secretary Pankaj Gupta and Sanjay Singh defended the national executive's decision to oust Prashant and Yadav from the political affairs committee (PAC).

"The trio, especially Prashant called up volunteers from other states and told them not to campaign for the party.I will not be campaigning for the party this time.You guys also don't campaign. It is necessary for the party to lose.It is only then Arvind (Kejriwal) will get some sense," the leaders said in the statement.

OneIndia News