Amongst the difference and breaking war of words between senior leaders, the Aam Aadmi Party’s National Executive meeting was held on Friday evening at party’s senior leader Prashant Bhushan’s residence in New Delhi. Present in the meeting were all the senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party. 
This meeting was conducted in the aftermath of an argument that broke between senior party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Manish Sisodia. The letters exchanged were also leaked.
Reports also came in that Yogendra Yadav, a noted AAP leader had offered to resign from the party posts. Later through a tweet he himself clarified that the rumours of his quitting from the party are baseless and that he is very much with the party.
NDTV quoted Sanjay Singh who said, “The party is united. In a democratic party, there are problems because of differences in opinion.”
The Aam Aadmi Party recently lost in the 2014 Loksabha Elections and won only four seats in Punjab. Soon after this election fiasco, two prominent AAP leaders Shazia Ilmi and Captain Gopinath submitted their resignations and quit the party. In her press conference, Shazia Ilmi had pointed out that the party lacked ‘internal democracy’. She had also said that a chronic clique runs the party and takes impulsive decisions which they learn about later.
On Thursday morning news also came in that another senior leader from Maharashtra Anjali Damania and AAP’s Maharashtra state secretary Preeti Sharma Menon too decided to quit from the party. However, by the evening, both took their resignations back.
In an interview with online portal First Post, Anjali Damania answered on why she took her resignation back, “Three things. We have decided to dissolve the state committee completely. Two, our meetings will now be fully open. We talk of transparency, so we should be starting with 
ourselves. There will now be no decisions coming from above, no high command culture. And three, there was a rising distance between us and the volunteers. For example volunteers did not know the details of what happened in Delhi, the reasons for the dharna, for Arvind’s resignation, his idea behind it, or about recent developments such as the jail bond, whether it was a personal bond, why he took the bond — there was a huge disconnect between the volunteers and others. In the early days of the IAC movement and AAP, we would have weekly meetings in Nanavati School in Vile Parle. These had been halted for the last three months because we were all in different places for elections. These will now be restarted.”
With so many things happening within the party, its convenor Arvind Kejriwal too, is probably finding it difficult to maintain unity. Infact, against Arvind Kejriwal, a defamation case was filed by BJP leader and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Inside the party, presently, there is a complete confusion. Zee News reported that speaking after the Nation Executive Meet of the party here, senior leader Prashant Bhushan acknowledged that there were organizational problem in the party.
While speaking with Spectralhues, Yaseen Anwer, Managing Editor of Poet’s Corner says, “I dont doubt Arvind’s honesty or Manish’s or Yogendra’s but the thing is party has gone through massive defeat very recently, it’s just that they will be blaming each other now.”
Freak’sFounder and CEO, Jay Morzaria says, “It seems as if each and every member have their own set of goals and Arvind Kejriwal is somehow unable to manage all the goals in one direction, which a leader ideally should be able to do.”
“All this results in loss of credibility and faith. They should stay together and confident,” says Jasmine Pereira, CEO and Founder of ImagEmpower.
Journalist Kamya Chaturvedi says, “The biggest reason is the arrogance of Arvind Kejriwal. The party was started on the basis of something called noble.But with the change in the perspectives and adoption of policies of other counterpart parties is adding fuel to fire.”
She further added, “The exit of members from AAP is like people of nationalist orientation can’t stand by leftist and disorientation.”
Back in February this year, when Anna Hazare had come up with 17 points agenda and Arvind Kejriwal had not responded to it. The Times of India had reported on February 28th that Anna Hazare called Arvind Kejriwal of being Power Hungry.
Arvind Kejriwal and AAP debuted in the 2013 Delhi Elections and performed remarkably well. People had full faith and hence voted for them. But thenthe sudden collapse of his government that too, in just 49 days, spread disappointment among the masses. Although Arvind Kejriwal recently apologized for his resignation but then it was too late for an apology to come.
Yaseen says, “Arvind cannot be held responsible for everything or Yogendra, responsibilities have to be divided.”
While Jay calls them a bunch of confused people, Image consultant Jasmine Pereira says that Kejriwal picked the wrong time to apologise to the people of Delhi for leaving his CM seat. “Loads of people invested their trust in him. He should get Anna Hazare on his side so that integrity can be resurrected,” she adds.
Yassen says, “AAP is not very well structured party. It lacks foundation and internal architecture which every party does in starting. This will take time.”
Early this year, Vinod Kumar Binny, a former AAP leader criticized the party of betraying with people of Delhi and straying from principles. Vinod Kumar Binny, in 2013 Delhi Elections, defeated Congress’ Dr. Ashok Kumar Walia by 8,000 votes. He reportedly claimed support of other four MLA’s too.
After Vinod Kumar Binny, Madhu Bhaduri too, quit the party saying that the party mistreated women. On 3rd February this year, Spectralhues had reported that Bhaduri wanted the party to issue an apology to the African women whom the Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti had heckled but her proposal was rejected and was allegedly humiliated at the party meet. And now, after two months, another two members Shazia Ilmi and Captain Gopinath quit the party adding to the loss.
“Self-Identity crisis now, they do not know what they want any more. Lokpal is the final destination but they need to build a firm concrete strategy together,” says Jasmine Pereira. “My advice is, use social media for discussing concepts,” she suggests.
Meanwhile from Journalist Kamya Chaturvedi says, “It would require thorough groundwork and conviction to people. Changeover in policies and thorough coordination is necessary.”
Delhi Assembly Elections are approaching and the party now needs to chalk out strategies to contest the upcoming elections. Co-ordination and Co-operation are important factors that need to be there among the members of the AAP. Also, the party needs to rethink on every aspect, meticulously this time. It needs to stand strong on the principles on which it had emerged.
Tags: Aam Aadmi Party AAP Arvind Kejriwal Battels in AAP
