Sidelined AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan today hit back at the Arvind Kejriwal-led camp of the Aam Aadmi Party lashing out at the Delhi chief minister and his coterie for spreading lies, weakening the democratic structure of the party and making the work culture of the party anarchic. The mood in the press conference was no less dramatic with claims of mystery phone calls, conspiracy theories clearly indicating that the honeymoon period for the eye-candy of Indian politics is without doubt over. Both Yadav and Bhushan alleged that the opposite camp want the duo out of the party as they were merely standing up to the anarchic ways of Kejriwal and seeking more transparency and internal democracy. Yadav started the press conference by saying that the recent events in AAP are nothing short of a betrayal of hopes, spirit and trust of the many volunteers who came together to take the party to the incredible heights it has reached since its formation. “The AAP rift was a struggle to save the spirit of the revolution which created the party. These are not personal issues, these are issues of a revolution in which thousands of people had taken part,” Yadav said. [caption id=“attachment_2176767” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] @ANI_News twitter[/caption] However, in a glimmer of hope he implied that there is still plenty of reason to be proud of AAP. “Even then, AAP is the only party discussing code of conduct, conflict of interest and internal democracy,” he said, reminding the people that AAP was born of a revolution. According to Yadav, it is a party that still believes in the Right to Information act. Speaking on the ongoing AAP rift, he claimed it was a struggle to save the spirit of the revolution which created the party in the first place. During the press conference he stated multiple times that this battle is primarily to retain the soul of AAP and that the fight will continue. “It is not the fight between two people,” Yadav said. On the question of who would be the convener of the party, Yadav said, “According to the AAP Constitution, only the National Executive can decide on the convener and not the National Council.” According to Yadav, the biggest question now is whether AAP has become like any other political party. Bhushan focused more on the recent turn of events, when efforts to come to a reconciliation between the two sides came to naught. As noted by Firstpost reporter Debobrat Ghose, sources inside the party said it has been a dialogue of the deaf from the beginning. While the Bhushan-Yadav camp has shown some urgency in patch-up efforts, Kejriwal, the man who matters most, has not reciprocated. Bhushan at the press conference claimed he had sent Arvind Kejriwal a SMS on 16 March seeking time for a discussion. “So far he couldn’t find time to meet us,” he said. According to Bhushan, trouble started after the Lok Sabha results. “A PAC meeting was called after Lok Sabha polls, since a demand was made for forming a government with Congress support,” he said. Bhushan touched on the recent controversy, where it came to light that Kejriwal had wanted to re-form the Delhi government with Congress support. “There was an argument whether we should form the government with Congress support earlier. In the PAC meeting that I insisted should be called five opposed it, four supported the proposal. Then as the National Convener Arvind said that with the power conferred upon him he wants the party to form the government with Congress support once again. “It is unfortunate as it is already out in a sting operation that the Arvind wanted to form the government by breaking the Congress party. But we opposed the move as we did not want AAP to form the government with MLAs that were bought from the Congress. “But Kejriwal wanted to take the decision of Congress support all by himself, I urged him to refer matter to the National Executive,” Bhushan said. The AAP leader, who is also a Supreme Court lawyer, said, “I had once told Arvind that you have many qualities. But you also have demerits that will ruin the party. You always want others to accept whatever decision you take. Then Arvind told me that I was never part of an organisation where my words were not honoured.” Bhushan said, “Only having a clean image or an intention is not enough. I told Arvind that you also need to have correct means to achieve your goals. A democratic forum should have transparency, accountability and democracy.” “Even Indira Gandhi thought she was saving the nation by declaring emergency. Because of his demerit, I urged Kejriwal to keep such people in the PAC who could stand up to him,” Bhushan said.