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AAP defuses crisis, suspends MLA to appease Vishwas

After three days of high-voltage drama, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday defused the crisis gripping the party by…

AAP defuses crisis, suspends MLA to appease Vishwas

AAP senior leader Kumar Vishwas. (PHOTO: IANS)

After three days of high-voltage drama, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday defused the crisis gripping the party by managing to work out a compromise formula to pacify its senior leader Kumar Vishwas.

As part of the compromise deal, the AAP leadership decided to suspend the Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan from the party's membership. Khan had accused Vishwas of being an "RSS-BJP agent" and of "plotting a coup" against the party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take over the party's top post. The AAP also constituted a disciplinary committee to look into Khan's charges. Vishwas had demanded Khan's expulsion from the party.

The AAP leadership also appointed Vishwas as the party in-charge of Rajasthan where assembly elections will be held in late 2018. A founder member of the AAP, Vishwas is a member of its Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the party's highest decision-making body.

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These decisions were taken at a PAC meeting on Wednesday at Kejriwal's residence, which was also attended by Vishwas among other members.

Emerging from the three-hour-long PAC meeting, the Deputy CM Manish Sisodia told reporters that in view of the atmosphere built over the last few days the PAC decided to suspend Khan from the party's membership. Khan had quit the PAC on Monday after Kejriwal expressed his displeasure over his Vishwas-baiting.

Accompanied by Vishwas, Sisodia said that the party has also formed a three-member committee comprising party leaders ~ Pankaj Gupta, Atishi Marlena and Ashutosh ~ to examine Khan's charges against Vishwas.

"The party has also made Vishwas its in-charge for Rajasthan as the state goes to the assembly polls next year," Sisodia added.

"The party needed a course action which is now happening….No one should think that it is a battle for oneupmanship," Vishwas told reporters, claiming that he would not like to be the CM or Deputy CM or AAP chief.

As Sisodia and Vishwas made it clear that the crisis has blown over, at least for now, the party activists and volunteers gathered outside Kejriwal's residence became jubilant. They cheered and raised slogans.

Sisodia later visited Khan's residence to convey to him the party's decision. In the evening, many Khan's supporters gathered outside Kejriwal's house to demand revocation of his suspension.

Late on Tuesday night, hectic developments were reported from the AAP camp, with the party leaders ~  Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh, who were later joined by Kejriwal and Sisodia ~ visiting Vishwas's residence in a bid to placate him. All of them subsequently came to Kejriwal's residence to continue their deliberations which went late into the night.      

Earlier on Tuesday, the crisis had deepened within the AAP, with Vishwas virtually threatening to quit the party over alleged attacks on him by a "coterie" of leaders encircling Kejriwal. Vishwas charged that

Khan was just a "mask" behind which others were "hatching conspiracies" against him.

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