Yogendra Yadav on his way out of AAP? Rumoured rift with Kejriwal may be to blame

Is Yogendra Yadav on his way out from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)? This may well be the case, according to a report in the Indian Express, which says that a heated meeting culminated in the National Executive proposing to give Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal the right to reconstitute the party’s Political Affairs Committee that could in turn see Yadav being removed from it. The National Executive meeting had reportedly seen “a heated exchange between a section of the national executive and Yadav, with his role in the run-up to the Delhi elections coming under criticism”. Yadav, along with party leader Prashant Bhushan, had raised concerns about candidate selection, following which the party set up an internal Lokpal that dropped two candidates. The Delhi unit of AAP was unhappy as it claimed that the party already had a strong filter to weed out candidates who don’t meet the party standards," a senior party leader told PTI. Concerns were also raised about “leakages” by some leaders to the media, which was not considered to be good for the party. [caption id=“attachment_2127041” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] PTI said that a second meeting had been held following the national executive meet, at which leaders had once again expressed their displeasure at Yadav’s actions. It was also decided that party chief Arvind Kejriwal would continue to play a dual role of chief minister and AAP’s National Convenor. The Express said that Yadav had not been present at this meeting, and that it was here that Kejriwal had also been given the power to reconstitute the PAC. According to the report:

“Sources said matters came to  head on Thursday morning when Kejriwal did not show up for the national executive meeting and offered his resignation instead from the post of national convener. This led to a furore and the executive rejected the resignation. “Later, a section of the national executive went to call on Kejriwal, and conveyed to him their rejection of his resignation. On Friday, members met and decided to give Kejriwal the powers to reconstitute the PAC,” a source said.”

This is hardly the first time that Yadav’s party loyalties and relationship with Kejriwal has come under pressure. Shortly after the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections,Yadav wrote a stinging letter to the AAP leadership, tendering his resignation. In it he expressed disappointment that the party was no longer adhering to the principles on which it was formed, and also expressed concern about the ‘personality cult’ that was building up around Kejriwal. In one part of the letter titled ‘Leader or Supremo?" Yadav wrote:

“There is a widespread perception among the workers and sympathisers as well as external observers that the party is falling prey to the disease of personality cult that afflicts all the political parties in the country. There is no one who doubts that Arvind bhai is the undisputed leader within the Party. He has richly earned this stature and we would not be where we are without his leadership. But there is a difference between a Leader and a Supremo. Love and affection for a leader often turns into a personality cult that can damage an organization and the leader himself. This is what appears to be happening to our Party. Major decisions of the party appear to, and indeed do, reflect the wishes of one person; when he changes his mind, the Party changes its course of action; proximity to the Leader comes to substitute for organizational roles and responsibilities. Since all the decisions and successes are credited to one person, all the blame also begins to accumulate at the doors of one person. Let me reiterate that Arvind bhai is no ordinary leader and there are no two opinions about his continuing as the National Convener; nor have I ever doubted his status as first among equals within the party’s leadership. The real question is whether there are limits to personal discretion of the leader.”

At that time, Kejriwal rejected the resignation and sent out a tweet, calling Yadav a “very dear friend and a very valued colleague.” The AAP chief added that  Yadav “raised some important issues. All of us will work on it.” But has Yadav perhaps overestimated just how much he can get away with in terms of criticising party decisions in public? Although Kejriwal may have moved past the letter in public, it must be remembered that it was in his interest to be seen as humble when it was written. He had just made two colossal mistakes - tendering his resignation as the Delhi Chief Minister, and making a premature decision to contest the Lok Sabha polls and take on Narendra Modi in Varanasi. With his image already taking a battering, he needed to show that he had learned from the debacles, and that he was willing to accept criticism. It was this persona that also ultimately helped him craft his historical victory in the Delhi elections. He kept apologising for resigning, smiled as Prashant Bhushan took shots at him, and was even gracious towards BJP’s  chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi as she ranted about  him and his party. But now that Delhi is done and dusted, he no longer needs to keep a smile on his face as ‘valued colleagues’ keep taking public potshots at him and the party. Will we now see the emergence of a harder Kejriwal, one who is no longer willing to be the punching bag of his former colleagues? We will know once we know the fate of Yogendra Yadav.