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Kejriwal’s associates come under attack after poll defeats

NewsKejriwal’s associates come under attack after poll defeats

Criticism about the style of functioning of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has started to grow from both within and outside the party after three successive election defeats — in Punjab, followed by the Rajouri Garden bypolls in Delhi and the recent dismal performance in the municipal corporation election here.

Many leaders from within the AAP, as well as leaders who were once close to the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, have blamed the “Kejriwal coterie” for the successive defeats, accusing the  “coterie” of not having an understanding of the ground reality.

Ved Prakash, a former AAP MLA, attacked Arvind Kejriwal and his “coterie”, calling them “immature” and lacking in political understanding. “Kejriwal has a set of leaders who are close to him, and he only listens to them, whether they are right or wrong. These people want to run and govern Delhi by using a laptop, sitting in their room. The MLAs who are working on the ground do not have a say in the party. The feedback unit which was constituted also does not have any say in the decision-making of the party.” Prakash told The Sunday Guardian.

Colonel Devendra Sherawat, a suspended AAP leader who had raised his voice against alleged misconduct in the Punjab unit of the AAP, claimed that the “Kejriwal coterie”, which comprises leaders like Sanjay Singh, Ashish Talwar, Manish Sisodia, Dilip Pandey, among others, operates like a “gang”.

“The top leadership operates like a gang that runs to crush anybody who raises questions about them. What experience do these people have? The man who wrote a book on Swaraj, has forgotten what Swaraj means. The MLAs of the party are not free to voice their opinions. He has to understand that the whole world is not running after his blood and he alone can be right. They just axe people who raise their voices without giving them a chance to explain. These narratives did not go down well with the people of Delhi, who had voted him to power to experince a politics of difference,” Sherawat said.

Some of the sitting AAP MLAs also complained about the style of functioning of the party.  Some said that the party did not consult them during the distribution of tickets, which could perhaps be a reason for the party’s poor performance.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an AAP leader said, “Many of us (MLAs) were not consulted before tickets were given to candidates in our constituencies. Some of us did not even know the candidate, till the time the list was announced. All the tickets were decided by the group close  toArvind Kejriwal.”

Rajesh Rishi, an AAP MLA from Janakpuri, spoke to The Sunday Guardian, right after the huddle the AAP went into on Thursday with all its sitting MLAs to take stock of the  MCD results. He said, “We are still analysing the results and the party has understood its mistake. There were certain people around Kejriwal and gave him wrong advice. They are slowly going away as some have already resigned, while others will be removed in due course of time. We will go back to our roots, the people of Delhi, and ask them about our mistakes so that we can rectify them and bounce back.”

Another AAP leader complained about the campaign strategy adopted by the party for the MCD elections. Requesting anonymity, he said that the party should have focused on localising the campaign and raise issues that concern the local bodies. “The party should have brought up the corruption issue that prevailed in the MCD. They have failed to do what they were supposed to do. They had made this election a fight between the CM and the PM, which has caused damage to the party,” he said.

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