To placate senior leader Kumar Vishwas, the poll-battered Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday suspended its Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had accused the former of plotting a coup, averting a major internal crisis.
The decision to suspend Khan from the party’s primary membership was taken by the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee after an over three-hour meeting, a day after Vishwas had threatened to quit the party if action was not taken against the legislator.
Amid growing demand from a section of MLAs for a greater role for Vishwas in the organisation, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the PAC, the party’s top decision-making body, has entrusted him with the responsibility of Rajasthan which goes to polls by the end of 2018.
Sisodia said the PAC has formed a three-member committee comprising the party’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta, Atishi Marlena and Ashutosh to look into the statements given by Khan.
Reacting to this, Khan said this was the party’s decision, but it was not mandatory for him to present himself before the three-member committee.
However, neither Vishwas nor Sisodia commented on the “coterie” surrounding Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal which had come under attack from Vishwas on Tuesday.
Kejriwal, Sisodia, Vishwas, Marlena, Gupta, Sanjay Singh, were present at the PAC. However, Durgesh Pathak was not present in the meeting.
The fissure in the party appeared at a time when the morale of the cadre reached its nadir after the party’s poor performance in Punjab and Goa assembly polls and its rout in the Rajouri Garden assembly bypoll and Delhi civic elections -- all in a span of less than two months.
The divide almost came to its tipping point on Tuesday when Vishwas said Khan was just a “mask”, pointing towards a “coterie” surrounding Kejriwal, which was “hatching conspiracy” against him.
Several party MLAs, including a minister, were also seen to be backing Vishwas.
Apart from accusing Vishwas of plotting a coup in the party, the Okhla MLA also accused him of being an “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Bharatiya Janata Party agent”. He had quit the PAC on Monday after Kejriwal expressed his displeasure.
After Vishwas’ threat to quit the AAP on Tuesday, Kejriwal and Sisodia had visited his Ghaziabad residence to pacify him late in the night.
They also took him to Kejriwal’s residence where the meeting continued until late in the night. However, the meeting yielded little result with Vishwas demanding stern action against Khan.
Vishwas had differed with Kejriwal on the issue of electronic voting machines. He had refused to attribute the AAP’s recent poll upsets to alleged manipulation of voting machines and had instead laid stress on the need to introspect.
He had also pointed out the “communication gap” between the party leadership and volunteers after a string of electoral defeats in the past few months.
“On behalf of the party, I wish to assure the volunteers and office-bearers that whenever a need arises for a course correction in the party, we will sit together despite our agreements and disagreements.
“No one should have a notion that it is a battle for one-upmanship,” Vishwas told reporters, adding he harboured no ambition to become the AAP convenor, chief minister or deputy chief minister.
He said some consultations that should have earlier taken place were now happening.
“I also thank volunteers for standing with me during this testing time,” Vishwas added.
As the PAC meeting was on inside Kejriwal’s residence, the mood outside was pensive and tense as volunteers gathered with a hope that differences between senior party leaders will be sorted.
A majority of them backed Vishwas, who is being seen as “someone speaking up for volunteers”.
As Vishwas and Kumar emerged outside Kejriwal’s residence together and hinted that all is well within the party volunteers cheered and raised slogans.
