AAP “officially” lists reasons for Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan’s ouster from PAC

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) issued a scathing statement against Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday morning defending the national executive’s decision to oust the duo from the political affairs committee (PAC), the party’s highest decision-making body.

Yadav and Bhushan were voted out of the PAC by majority during the national executive meeting of the party on March 1. Although the reasons for their ouster are more or less known, Tuesday’s statement, issued on behalf of AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai and Pankaj Gupta, is the party’s first official and detailed reaction to the controversy.

Listing out eight reasons behind NE’s decision of March 1, the statement accuses the dissenting leaders of working against the interests of the party and conspiring together to make AAP lose Delhi elections.
“The party didn’t go public with the reasons for their (Yadav and Bhushan) ouster because it was felt that this could have a negative impact on their public image, but several statements made in the media has given the impression that the decision was undemocratic and irresponsible. This has forced the party now to list out all the reasons for their ouster,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Bhushan discouraged volunteers from other states to campaign for AAP in Delhi and also dissuaded prospective donors from contributing to the party’s war chest ahead of Delhi elections. Bhushan, it was alleged, was also supporting AVAM, a splinter group working against the interests of the party. Yadav, on the other hand, was accused of planting negative stories about party convenor Arvind Kejriwal in the media.
“It’s sad that when volunteers were working hard for the party, some of the senior members wanted to weaken the party and were trying to make AAP lose elections,” the statement added.

ET could not reach Yadav for a comment. Although Bhushan also refused to react to the statement on Tuesday. However, speaking to ET on Monday on the issue of discouraging people to campaign during elections he had said, “You need to understand that at that time when I said this the contest between AAP and BJP was very close. I was worried that even if we win elections by a close margin, the tainted and dubious candidates would have blackmailed the party for some plum posts and this could have led to the fall of the AAP government in Delhi. In this context I had said that I rather have the party lose elections than win with the support of tainted people.”