Inside AAP: How “supremo” Kejriwal fought off Yogendra Yadav’s challenge 

June 9, 2014

Delhi: On 5 June, the day before Aam Aadmi Party’s national executive meet began in Delhi, two emails were leaked to the media. One was written by Yogendra Yadav, in which he slammed Arvind Kejriwal, without naming him, for working like a “supremo”. The second was by Manish Sisodia, seen as a proxy for Arvind Kejriwal, who ripped into Mr Yadav, alleging that he was destroying the party and Mr Kejriwal’s image.

When the national executive started the next day at Prashant Bhusan’s Jangpura residence, MrKejriwal knew that the tone had been set for the meeting and it was against him. The mail spat between Mr Yadav and Mr Sisodia had not gone down well with many party colleagues, and it was the latest symptom of a much larger problem: there was now a clear pushback against his leadership style, and the coterie that he had built around him, which included the likes of Manish Sisodia.
For the first time in its 18-month history, Arvind Kejriwal’s leadership was under severe challenge.

A contrite Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal made his first move at the start of the meeting, proposing to win back disgruntled party leader Shazia Ilmi. This was a clear signal to others that he was ready to reconcile with those who have spoken out against the party leadership, including Yogendra Yadav.

In his email, Mr Sisodia had blamed Mr Yadav for the dismal results in Haryana and for the over optimistic national projections that led to the party contesting over 400 seats despite limited resources. So the discussion on the poll results further cornered Mr Yadav. By the time the first day of the meeting got over, the more vocal pro-Kejriwal group in the party had isolated the political analyst turned politician.

Mr Yadav, clad in his trademark kurta with a cotton towel, came out alone from the meet on the first day, refused to speak to the media, merely saying that such things happen in a democratic party. People present in the meeting said that both Mr Yadav and Mr Kejriwal had cordial conversations during the day.

The rapprochement

On the morning of 7 June, the second day of the meet, Mr Yadav accompanied by Prashant Bhusan, went to Mr Kejriwal’s Tilak Lane residence. It was an attempt by Mr Yadav to accept the olive branch offered by the party chief. The three leaders discussed the future of the party and their strategy for the Delhi elections: Mr Kejriwal told them point blank that if was the face of the party for the Delhi elections, he needed to call the shots.

Mr Yadav agreed with him, and Mr Bhushan came around despite initial reservations.


Yogendra Yadav’s ambitions

In accepting Mr Kejriwal’s supremacy for the Delhi elections, Mr Yadav saw the validation of his own authority in the Haryana elections, slated for later this year. He intends to lead the party in the Haryana polls, and hopes the powers vested in Arvind Kejriwal for Delhi will be vested in him for Haryana. It’s also good to remember that Yogendra Yadav’s dissent started after another leader from Haryana, Naveen Jaihind, was seen as challenging his authority in the state.

It was Mr Yadav who proposed the resolution in the national executive to give Mr Kejriwal sweeping powers to run the party and election affair in Delhi unhindered. The resolution was passed by voice votes. Later in the day Mr Yadav and Mr Jaihind’s resignation were taken up and rejected.

The restructuring

The next thing on the minds of the pro-Kejriwal group was to put to rest the issue of centralization of power: restructuring of the party and expansion of the important committees were decided as the way out, what they called “Mission Vistaar”. The agenda came up on the third and concluding day of the meet. It was decided to rejig the most powerful committee the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and expand the national executive. Later in the day a list of 25 fresh invitees to the national executive was issued, which included the four AAP members of parliament from Punjab.

The concluding day of the meet was also used to discuss the issue of resources available going into the state elections. The executive deferred the decision on fighting the assembly elections in the states of Maharashtra and Haryana: the decision would be taken based on reports from the state committees.

A large chunk of the party feels that if Delhi goes to polls, the party must skip Haryana and Maharashtra in order to stop their resources from being divided. The poor Lok Sabha performance in the two states is also a crucial factor. But party leaders from the state units of Haryana and Maharashtra are keen to go into the elections slated later this year. Yogendra Yadav himself is keen to go for it in Haryana. That could be a potential source of conflict in the future.

The final decision on this will only be made after the polls are announced in Delhi. Till then at least, Arvind Kejriwal has managed to ward off the challenge from Yogendra Yadav, and win over his loyalty.

- This story was first published in www.thepoliticalindian.com on June 9, 2014. It was also published by Rediff.com and some other news websites.