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Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Mayank Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the pro-Arvind Kejriwal faction in the party was mounting pressure on him to quit the party.
In a fresh blog, Gandhi said a “concerted attempt” was being made to project him as an “anti-party” worker and alleged AAP’s leader Ashish Khetan has been attacking him. He also said this could lead to his resignation from the party.
“Attacks have begun against me from Ashish Khetan and others. Some dissatisfied members from Maharashtra have started giving interviews against me, some old cases are being re-opened. A concerted attempt is being made in social media to call me anti-party and anti-Arvind Kejriwal,” said Gandhi.
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Gandhi further alleged “a small group of party decision-makers in Delhi” have removed him from an informal group of party leaders on social media platforms. “More will come and I will be finally humiliated so much that I will quit,” Gandhi, also the party’s Gujarat observer, said.
The party leader said a similar tactic was played to remove senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the party. However, “they overturned that plan by staying with the party”.
Although Yadav and Bhushan have been removed from the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) through a resolution, they have still not resigned from the party.
Although Gandhi had abstained from voting in the national executive (NE) meeting held on March 4 when these leaders were removed, he had written a critical blog post criticising the proceedings of the meeting. He had gone public to reveal a portion of the proceedings, despite a gag order from the AAP.
Gandhi also said the AAP might not contest the municipality elections in Mumbai as “leadership of Maharashtra will be challenged and discredited by some individuals” soon.
Gandhi demanded the minutes of the NE meetings of the AAP be video-recorded and allowed to be viewed by volunteers. He said such a proposal was demanded during the joint draft committee meetings on the Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011 (when the party was not formed and the leaders were part of the campaign).
Meanwhile, senior AAP leader Anjali Damania alleged Yadav “was trying to promote his own people in the party” and alleged Bhushan had told Damania that “it was essential for the AAP for lose Delhi polls”.
Damania also asked Gandhi to explain why he stated “half-truth” in his blogs.
