Rift in AAP widens, Sisodia slams Vishwas for his statement

The rift in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seems to widening with each passing day. Slamming senior party leader Kumar Vishwas' public statement, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that the former should not have spoken up about the party's internal matter to the media.

"I am very upset with the statement of Kumar Vishwas. He should not make statement in the media, but should raise his concern inside party platform," Sisodia told the media here.

He further said that making such statements in the media could lower the morale of the party workers.

"Nobody asked him to apologise for anything. The party does not belong to Arvind Kejriwal, to me or to Kumar Vishwas, but it belongs to lakhs of workers in India and abroad. He should not make it personal issue," he added.

Sisodia's statement came after Vishwas, in a veiled attack, accused AAP leaders of conspiring against him.

"The things Amanatullah has said about me, if he had said the same for Arvind Kejriwal or Manish Sisodia, he would have been thrown out of the party in 10 minutes. But he had said such thing so many times, yet he wasn't ousted," Vishwas told the media here.

"Ammanatullah is just a mask; someone else is speaking behind his mask. I would appeal to them to not go against me as I had once put up posters for AAP and defended them," he added.

Asserting that he was not interested to hold the position of chief minister or party president, Vishwas said that he won't compromise with his principles and will soon take a call on his future line of action.

Earlier, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan's had asserted that Vishwas was 'planted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)'.

Amanatullah yesterday resigned from the party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) following a high-end meeting of the party members with Kumar Vishwas conspicuously absent.

"I have resigned from the PAC. I stand by what I said about Vishwas. He is working at the behest of the BJP and the RSS. In fact, he has been planted by them to create disharmony in the party," he said.

"Vishwas ate cake with Ajit Doval and Bassi when AAP MLAs were arrested," he added.