Kejriwal Returns to a Divided AAP, Decision after National Council Meeting on March 28

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is returning to chaos and bedlam in his party, albeit in a better frame of mind both physically and mentally. At least that is what his party members hope, keeping as one of them said “fingers crossed” that the rejuvenated CM after a ten day stint at a naturopathy centre in Karnataka will handle the clash of personalities with sobriety and maturity.

Interestingly no one knows what Kejriwal has up his sleeve, if anything else at all. The public airing of differences between the Prashant Bhushan-Yogendra Yadav group versus the Manish Sisodia-Ashutosh group has upset the majority of AAP members who circulated an online petition urging all these leaders to keep quiet, and work out their differences away from the media spotlights. As one of the signatories said, “this really left a bad taste, with all those who are supposed to leaders hurling stones at each other regardless of the consequences.”

The petition, signed by over 10,000 AAP cadres, has had some impact in that it has driven the controversy indoors. But even so the issue is far from resolved and even the senior leaders have no idea of which way the AAP wind will blow. The decision has been left to Kejriwal, who will now be consulting the 350 member National Council meeting that meets here on March 28. This includes all the original founders of the party as well as the district and state convenors.

Before the meeting it is almost clear that Kejriwal is not particularly keen to accommodate Bhushan and Yadav beyond a point. They both have support within AAP, but Yadav is seen by many as “expendable.” The public exchange of the chargesheet of the Sisodia group and the point by point counter by Bhushan and others makes it very clear that neither side really is fighting on hard issues, but on egos and as The Citizen had pointed out earlier, control over Kejriwal and the party.

The decisive Delhi elections have placed Kejriwal at a new level, making him the first among equals rather than one amongst several equals. This reality, the insiders say, cannot be meddled with and eventually those who have quibbles with him will have to leave AAP or adjust to the new power centres. This is proving difficult for Bhushan and Yadav to accept mainly because they see AAP as theirs as well and as a supporter said to this writer, “if Kejriwal chooses to exercise his autocratic control instead of getting all together then what will be the difference between him and Mulayam or Mayawati kind of politics?”

Perhaps, but then there are as many or perhaps more who feel that in the interests of keeping the government stable at this crucial juncture, the chief minister’s reaching out has limitations. And he is on firm ground because one, all the legislators elected to the Delhi Assembly are with him; and two, it is very clear that this election victory was because of him and not any others. Bhushan and Yadav reportedly kept out of the campaign, entering the fray only towards the end when it became clear that AAP was very much part of the race. This, said some of the supporters who are with neither camp, has gone against them because it is being seen as “opportunistic.”

Kejriwal thus has a hard task before him, and if he has taken a decision it is certainly not known. But in the final analysis, he is not expendable. The others are. And this will become more visible at the end of what now seems to be the crucial National Council meetings that is expected to be the precursor to a final decision that will end the chaos within the party, and leave the leaders free to focus on governance.