NEW DELHI — Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav's open letter to Aam Aadmi Party volunteers on Wednesday include some damning allegations against some of the senior party leaders.
Claiming that they had to break their silence to defend themselves against allegations made in the past 10 days, Bhushan and Yadav said that they were in "deep anguish" over the discord within the party. They both said that they would continue to "work tirelessly" for the party and expect all allegations levelled against them investigated deeply.
Here are five important statements made by the duo on Wednesday:
1. The position of national convener was never an issue.
"Till date, we have not mentioned either informally or formally that one of us would like to be national convener of the party," they said. "We both voted against Kejriwal's rejection.
2. The decision to seek support from Congress was undemocratic.
After the Lok Sabha elections last year, Kejriwal wanted to get Congress support in Delhi to form government. While Delhi legislators supported him, volunteers from Delhi and across the country resisted it, and threatened to leave the party, worried that this would harm AAP's credibility. We agreed with this vast majority and opposed the alliance.
3. There was an unconstitutional demand to dissolve the political action committee (PAC).
After the Lok Sabha results, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Ashutosh wanted all PAC members to resign, so that they could elect a new committee as per their needs. It was unconstitutional, so we opposed it, along with other party members.
4. Arvind Kejriwal forced national party units not to fight in state elections.
Even though the majority of AAP's national executive was of the opinion that each state unit should be able to decide for themselves whether they would contest in state elections, Kejriwal opposed it, saying he would not campaign anywhere. This is against AAP's founding principles of democracy and self-rule.
5. Process for choosing candidates for Delhi elections was unfair.
There were several complaints against candidate selection for Delhi elections, including allegations of rigging the selection. Some of the candidates were also alleged to have criminal backgrounds, much like other political parties.