Arvind Kejriwal Offers to Quit as Party Chief Amid Deep Rift Within AAP
New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal today offered to quit a top post as his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held a meeting to decide on two leaders who have attacked him repeatedly. Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, both founder members, are likely to be removed from AAP’s decision-making panel.
Mr Kejriwal sent a resignation letter this morning to the AAP national executive, saying he was “overburdened with work” as Delhi’s Chief Minister, and would not be able to handle both jobs efficiently. He is not attending the executive’s meeting.
This is his second resignation offer in a week. It will be debated in the meeting and, sources say, will be rejected.
But Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan are almost certain to be laid off by the party.
“It is too late for any reconciliation,” a top party leader told NDTV before the AAP meet.
Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan have been accused of conspiring to unseat Arvind Kejriwal.
“Na Todenge, na chhodenge. Sudhrenge aur sudharenge (We won’t break the party or quit. We will improve ourselves and others),” Mr Yadav said this morning.
Mr Kejriwal, 46, will fly to Bengaluru on Thursday for 10-day treatment at a naturopathy farm. He has high blood sugar and coughing, say party sources, who add, however, that the AAP chief deliberately skipped today’s meeting.
“I am deeply hurt and pained by what is going on in the party… I refuse to be drawn in this ugly battle,” Mr Kejriwal had tweeted on Tuesday, speaking for the first time on the meltdown weeks after AAP recorded a stunning win in the Delhi election.
The leadership battle was exposed by several internal notes flying between two camps.
Mr Bhushan told NDTV there has been a “breakdown of communication” between him and Arvind Kejriwal and he has serious disagreements with how the party is functioning. “There is a great danger of AAP becoming a one-man show,” he said and also alleged that Mr Kejriwal was ready to “compromise on the party’s core ideology” for the sake of electoral politics.
