Sanjay Singh defends Kejriwal, blames Bhushan and Yadav for AAP crisis

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Friday came to the rescue of his party chief Arvind Kejriwal after Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav portrayed him in bad light

He alleged that Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav have tried to give an impression that the Delhi Chief Minister and those by his side are at fault.

Singh alleged that Bhushan and Yadav are trying to find fault with Kejriwal.

"Bhushan and Yadav are trying to show that they are the saviours and only we have problems," he said.

The AAP leader said several attempts were made to ensure that the political party remains united and intact.

"As earlier I have said and I repeat that to save the family we have tried a lot. We have discussed many a time that somehow the family survives," Singh said.

"They have raised many questions. They have tried to prove that all mistakes and drawbacks are in Arvind Kejriwal and the rest, and they said they would improve us," he added.

The AAP leader also denied Bhushan's statement of not meeting their demands.

"We had agreed on some issues and discussions were going on in others. He said that the party should be brought under the RTI. He said that volunteers should have a say in the party's decisions. We agreed on that," Singh said.

The AAP leader said that it was Yadav, who proposed that all decisions should be taken via the secret ballot in the national executive meetings.

"My question is that if secret ballot needs to be taken then you should have waited for the national executive as it would discuss who would be there in the national council. And then they said they the five demands were not much important. And what Ashish Khetan and Prithvi Reddi would decide will be enough for us," he added.

Singh further said that Yadav himself made a list of people, who should be elected to the national executive.

"Prithvi Reddi, Vijay Nair, Meera Sanyal, Atishi Marlena, Gul Panag, Maruti Bhapkar, Raghav Chaddha, Rahul Mehra, Dayamani Barla and Kiran Vissa were the ones named in the list," he said while reading out the list that had been prepared earlier by Yadav.

Earlier in the day, Bhushan alleged that Kejriwal does not like people who oppose his decisions.

"I always told Kejriwal that he had two shortcomings - first you want to take decisions in an autocratic manner, you don't want people in your team who can oppose your decisions. He then told me that I have never been in an organisation where my decisions are not accepted," Bhushan said at a press conference here.

"Second, having a good intention is not enough, you also need to be just and fair. Lies are being spread about us that we have resigned. We had offered to resign only after our five demands were met," he added.

Bhushan alleged that Kejriwal had intended to take support from Congress to form the government in Delhi, which was opposed by many leaders.

Bhushan also denied reports that he wanted Kejriwal to step down from the national convenor's post, saying he had supported the idea that the latter should continue as national convenor after taking over as the Delhi Chief Minister.

Yadav, who was also addressing the media along with Bhushan, alleged that lies are being spread about him for the last few days that he was firm on getting the national convener's post and said the recent happenings have broken the trust within the party.

Yadav also rubbished reports that he wanted to take over from Kejriwal the national convener's post.

"As per party's constitution, the national council is not the forum where the decision on national convener can be taken. Only the national executive can decide on it," said Yadav.

"Who will be party's national convener is not an issue, we have never raised it," he added.

Yadav said that trust in the AAP has been broken by the events of the past few weeks.

Yadav claimed that the issues being raised today were not personal but fundamental to the movement.

"People are connected with the spirit of the revolution which created the Aam Aadmi Party," he added.