AAP leaders avoid 'Swaraj Samvad'

Many Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and prominent personalities on Tuesday skipped the 'Swaraj Samvad' -- a dialogue on the present and future of alternative politics organised here by dissident party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.

Some of the prominent people who stayed away from the event were retired Admiral L. Ramdas, who was recently removed as AAP's internal Lokpal, AAP's Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi, former party leader Christina Samy, and social activists Aruna Roy and Medha Patkar, among others.

According to sources, all the absentees either cited ill-health or prior personal commitments as the reason for not attending the event which has been termed as an effort to break the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by leaders close to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Ahead of the meeting, Yadav said it was a "day for new beginning" and the meeting was a "dialogue on alternative politics".

"This meeting is a dialogue on alternative politics and I am sure we will witness something new here (meeting)," Yadav said, adding that "the AAP constitution gives an ordinary party member freedom of speech and expression which no other party gives".

Yadav said: "If workers are using this freedom given to them by the party's constitution, I am sure the party would respect it."

Another AAP member, Anand Kumar, who attended the meet, denied any possibility of "breaking or leaving the party".

"We will neither break the party nor leave it. We will improve it. We will not create a new party here," he said.

Two different kinds of forms were distributed among the volunteers, asking them about their views on present and future politics in the country.