No internal rift within AAP, says Yogendra Yadav; terms all reports 'imaginary'

New Delhi, March 2: Trashing reports of internal crisis within the party, senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav on Monday said that the reports of rift between senior party leaders are "fabricated" and "bizarre".

"Voters in Delhi have given us a huge mandate and this is the time to work more with a large heart," Yadav wrote on Twitter.

He also said national capital has placed a lot of hope on us. And we should not lower that expectation with our petty actions.

Media reports said that the founding members, Yadav and Bhushan, were asked either to resign from the party or assume non-active roles amid difference on various issues.

Yadav's statement has come days after party's internal lokpal wrote a letter to Arvind Kejriwal pointing to the growth of two camps within the top leadership of the party.

With sources saying that differences have cropped up between senior AAP members, especially over the selection of candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, the letter recommended that any criticism of inner-party democracy needed to be dealt with by an independent group which carries out an internal audit.

In the letter written ahead of its National Executive meet last week, Admiral Ramdas, a former Navy chief and the party's internal Lokpal, also said that AAP must make efforts to become a genuinely gender-sensitive party as neither its PAC nor the Delhi government led by it has any woman members.

"During the past six to eight months, there has been an abject breakdown in communications and mutual trust amongst the topmost leadership of the party.

This has in my view led to the growth of two camps within the party and loose talk about conspiracies. "This is unacceptable and shows that we are no different from any of the parties whom we criticise so vocally. I sincerely urge the entire leadership of the party... to stop listening to rumours and to discourage colleagues... who continually bring negative feedback about each other," Ramdas said in the letter.

Sources said that two senior AAP leaders and members of its all-powerful Political Affairs Committee, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, were unhappy with candidate selection.

They also said that neither was the duo in favour of the party's decision to not contest Haryana elections last year. The letter says there was a crisis situation just ahead of Delhi elections over issues raised by Bhushan who, it claims, also threatened to resign if his concerns were not addressed.

"In end December, 2014, there was a crisis situation brought about by Bhushan's unhappiness with candidate selection and the decision-making processes. If not addressed, he said he would be forced to resign from the party and go public.

"To contain this, a special meeting was called in Delhi on Jan. 3-4, 2015, where a decision was taken to refer the issue to the AAP Lokpal, assisted by a specially selected team," the letter said.

OneIndia News