The war of words within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today reached new heights with party alleging that disgruntled leader Kumar Vishwas had in April attempted to topple the Arvind Kejriwal government.
AAP's Delhi convenor Gopal Rai claimed that after the MCD polls in April last year, "there were attempts to bring down the government and Kumar Vishwas was the principal mover and at the centre of those conspiracies".
"Most of the meetings in this regard involving a few MLAs were held at his residence. Kapil Mishra was a part of it and later he was removed from the cabinet," he said during a Facebook Live session.
The poet-politician did not react to Rai's allegations. Vishwas had yesterday alleged that he was punished for saying the truth about Kejriwal's decisions and that he accepted his "martyrdom".
During the social media session, Rai referred to a video that Vishwas had released indirectly attacking the Kejriwal government on the issue of corruption.
Rai said that through the video, Vishwas sought to scuttle the AAP's chances in the municipal polls, which the party eventually lost to the BJP.
"He is a person who attacks the party from every possible public platform. Can such a person be sent to the Rajya Sabha?" Rai asked.
Earlier in the day, Vishwas had tweeted that he will never rethink the stance on various issues that he took in the video.
"The voice of this video was, is and will remain on top for me, despite the cost I had to pay recently. I will never compromise on any stand in this video, even if more sacrifices are needed in future, because it's not just me, it's We, The Nation!" he tweeted.
The AAP had on Wednesday nominated Sanjay Singh, Sushil Gupta and ND Gupta as its Rajya Sabha nominees.
While Singh has been associated with the party since its inception, Sushil Gupta is a Delhi-based businessman and ND Gupta a chartered accountant.
The decision was taken at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in a meeting attended by around 56 party MLAs. The party's highest decision making body, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), met soon after and formally approved the decision.
Vishwas, who was angling for a Rajya Sabha slot, did not attend the PAC meeting. He is a member of the PAC.
Immediately after this, Vishwas had said that it is difficult to survive in the AAP if one disagrees with Kejriwal.
"In the last one and half years, I spoke the truth whether it is Arvind Kejriwal's decisions or issues like surgical strike, irregularities in ticket distribution, softness towards extremists in Punjab, JNU incident among others, for which I have been rewarded in the form of punishment for speaking the truth," he had said.
Elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi would be held on January 16. The AAP, which enjoys a brute majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, is set to win all three seats.
