New Delhi : Dissident leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had been conspiring against the AAP for the past one year, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said.
In a 44-minute, partly emotional speech at Saturday’s National Executive meeting here, the video of which was released on Sunday, Kejriwal made several accusations against the other two co-founders of the party.
He alleged that the two men had made every leadership meeting of the Aam Aadmi Party a cantankerous affair. He had bowed to many of their demands but they never appeared to relent.
“People of Delhi trusted us and voted to power but our own friends backstabbed us. They called me a cheat, which even the Congress and the BJP did not dare to,” said an emotional Kejriwal.
He said Bhushan and Yadav had worked against the party for the past one year while being within, and had prevented people from funding it ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
The AAP chief blamed the two men for the mess the AAP was finding itself in despite winning a smashing victory in the Delhi election in February.
He said both Yadav and Bhushan kept leaking to the media information that harmed the AAP.
“Who benefitted from this? I? Yogendra Yadav? Prashant Bhushan? No! Parties like the BJP and the Congress benefitted.”
The 46-year-old chief minister accused Bhushan and Yadav of tripping the party when they should have honoured the Delhi mandate.
Claiming that his barely two-month-old government had achieved much more than what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had managed to in 10 months, he lamented that it had all gone waste.
“We should have worked to make Delhi a model city. When we should have been in news for our positive work, we were on the front pages because of all the wrong reasons.”
Amid repeated applause, Kejriwal cited examples to claim that many of the accusations heaped against him by the dissidents were baseless.
Before concluding, he said: “It is for you to understand whether the fight that has been going for the last one-and-a-half months is a fight of principles or ambitions.”
“You have to select them or me,” he said, taking out his resignation as the National Convenor and from the Political Affairs Committee, the National Executive and the National Council.
“If you select them, then I will step down from all posts and work as an ordinary party worker.”