A three-member panel formed to settle internal differences within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) met senior party leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who find themselves at odds with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
The panel, including PAC members Gopal Rai and Pankaj Gupta and National Executive Anand Kumar, met Yadav on Saturday night and Bhushan on Sunday. Both Yadav and Bhushan raised their objections to certain issues.
While Bhushan objected to "importing" candidates from other parties to contest elections on AAP tickets, Yadav expressed his displeasure at the procedures adopted by the party for the selection of candidates.
"Yadav was unhappy over candidate selection. He said that unlike the last Delhi election, where opinion was sought from people when candidates were selected and the process was made more participatory by seeking people's views, the same was not practised this time and the party should take care of this," a source said, IBNLive reported.
"He (Bhushan) also raised concerns about the importing candidates from outside and only those with clean history and good character should be allowed to contest elections on the party ticket. He wants the PAC to be reconstituted and wanted regional representation, a woman and a dalit face in the PAC," the source added.
The insider further said that the leader also emphasised on the need for meetings of National Council, National Executive and PAC to be held on daily basis. "Also, there should be proper party structure in other states and there should be an election process in the party," the source added.
The crisis within the party simmered after Bhushan accused the party for running a "one person-centric" campaign during the Delhi Assembly elections, demanding "swaraj" within the organisation.
Bhushan, in a letter to AAP's national executives, said: "Running one person-centric campaign may be effective, but does that justify sacrificing our principles? We will need to make a conscious course correction if we have to get away from a supremo-controlled party," Hindustan Times reports.
Bhushan also raised the issue of transparency in party's fund allocations and expenses. He said AAP has not found a way to manage the funds systematically and keeping it transparent for the public as well as thousands of volunteers who have given a lot to the organisation, which was meant to stand against all the other political parties in the country.
"The party now receives considerable donations. There is, however, no systematic planning on how these funds are to be spent. We do not have any empowered committee or decision making system of deciding on how the funds are to be spent," Bhushan said.
"We said that we would put out all our accounts on a public website... But far from bringing party under RTI, we haven't even put our accounts on website, we've put donations but not expenses... Our party has been built on idealism and sweat and tears of thousands of volunteers who sacrificed much to create a different party... We owe it to them and must ensure that we don't drift and become just another one man centric party," he added in the letter.
