The churning in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reached a climax, with the party expelling senior leaders Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha. The party’s disciplinary committee, which was once headed by Bhushan, had sent the four leaders showcause notices for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.
An AAP statement said the committee, comprising Pankaj Gupta, Ashish Khetan and Dinesh Waghela, met and considered the responses of Yadav, Bhushan and Kumar. Jha has not sent a reply so far.
The decision to sack them from the party was taken by the national disciplinary committee which said as it was not satisfied with the response it got to the show-cause notices. “The committee carefully considered responses furnished by Yadav, Bhushan and Kumar and found them unsatisfactory… (they) indulged in gross indiscipline and anti-party activities… Jha failed to furnish his response… The committee, therefore, has decided to expel all four members from the party,” the AAP statement said.
Bhushan was charged with working for party’s defeat in the Delhi assembly polls. He was also charged with supporting AWAM, a break away group of the party.
In their response to the notice, the rebels accused party chief Arvind Kejriwal of “gross violation” of its constitution and attacked two members of its disciplinary panel for allegedly doing a “planted” story and accepting donations from dubious firms.
Responding to show-cause notices issued by AAP’s National Disciplinary Committee (NDC), Bhushan and Yadav questioned its locus standi for seeking their reply, saying the panel was formed after the “illegal” and “unconstitutional” meeting of the party’s National Council on March 28.
