Rift in AAP widens as reconciliation talks fail

The turmoil in AAP deepened tonight after reconciliation talks between Arvind Kejriwal's camp and the rivals failed amid speculation that dissenting founder members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan could be shown the door in the national council meeting on Saturday.
Bhushan and Yadav, in an open letter, accused Kejriwal of initiating the talks only to secure their resignation from the the national executive and alleged that he was not showing seriousness on any of the major issues raised by them.
Leaders close to Kejriwal said talks have failed as Bhushan and Yadav were adamant on removal of the Delhi Chief Minister from the post of party's national convenor while making it clear that there will be no further talks with the duo.

After a meeting of the AAP's Political Affairs Committee, Ashish Khetan, known to be a Kejriwal loyalist, said there will be no further talks with Bhushan and Yadav and that all the issues will be taken up at the national council meeting on Saturday.
Khetan said all the communications sent to the party leadership by Yadav and Bhushan will be presented before the national council after which a decision on their fate will be taken.
There was speculation that both Bhushan and Yadav could be removed at the meeting.

In the letter, Bhushan and Yadav said they had offered to resign, provided the party accepts a number of their demands to ensure greater transparency in the party. Tonight, the duo said they have not resigned from party's national executive.

In the letter, they said the message conveyed to them during reconciliation talks was that either they should resign gracefully or face removal from the national executive. They also accused those close to Kejriwal of spreading "lies" against them.
"Slowly it dawned upon us that the principle intent of these talks is to secure our resignation. The bottomline for interlocutors from your side was that the two of us must resign from the national executive. We were told that this is your personal insistence.
"We were told that you are not willing to be the national convenor as long as the two of us are members of national executive," Bhushan and Yadav said in the letter.

In the letter, Yadav and Bhushan, who were already removed from party's Political Affairs Committee, said they were told that Kejriwal was not willing to be the national convenor if they are part of the national executive.
"This is exactly what you had said when demanding our removal from PAC.