Sacked AAP spokesperson Atishi Marlena turns against mentors Bhushan, Yadav

New Delhi:  Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi Marlena, who was recently sacked as party spokesperson, today wrote a letter criticizing her former mentors Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.

Her removal from the post of spokesperson was attributed to her alleged support to  Yadav-Bhushan faction in the internal party feud. With this letter, she has tried to put the record straight by siding with Kejriwal faction.

Marlena started the letter by saying, "Regrettably, this letter will mark a change in our political engagement. It is being written to express strong disagreement with two people whom I held in extremely high regard.”

Also read: Bhushan rejects Marlena's claim that Shanti opposed truce

It was Yogendra Yadav who brought Marlena, a born leftist and a former social activist, into the party and mentored her. Her letter clears that she is deeply hurt by the ouster of the duo and did not want a confrontation.

Atishi wrote, "I will continue to hold both of you in the highest regard but I do not believe that our paths can be common anymore. I do hope that they do not diverge to a degree that we may have to stand confronting each other."

She further wrote, "Since both of you were not ready to accept the possible compromise within the institutional framework of the party, the tragedy is that any steps that you now take will efficiently weaken the fight against the forces of corruption and cronyism. Every further escalation of these issues in the public domain by you will lead to a response from the party and the conflict will keep growing and get earlier."

Marlena has credited party leader Sanjay Singh with building a consensus among the party's leadership. She wrote, "Unknown to the public and our volunteers, Sanjay Singh made a remarkable effort, leaving no stone unturned for everyone to come to an agreement....Amazingly , by the 26th (March), Sanjay bhai had succeeded in bringing a consensus that promised a collective apology from the leadership of the party, time-bound institutional changes under Prithvi's leadership and six new, neutral and credible members in the national executive."

Marlena alleged in the letter that it was Shanti Bhushan who forced his son Prashant Bhushan to not agree to the terms offered by the party. She wrote, "When I found out the final reason for the refusal of this agreement by your side, I was appalled," she says."Prashant ji - you refused to accept these terms because Shanti Bhushan ji said 'no'! The same Prashant Bhushan who can take on the strongest forces in this country did not agree to something in the larger interests of the party because his father said 'no', because Shanti Bhushan ji said he would leave the family home."

In response to Marlena's letter, Prashant Bhushan rubbished the claim that he backed out of the reconciliatory talks with Arvind Kejriwal camp on his father Shanti Bhushan's insistence, saying the negotiations collapsed due to “trust deficit”.

“It is not correct to say that negotiations broke down because of my father Shanti Bhushan. The talks failed as there was trust deficit,” Bhushan said when asked about Marlena's letter.

Both Bhushan and Yadav have been maintaining that Kejriwal was determined to remove them from the National Executive and the talks were being continued to project a positive image of himself to the volunteers.  Bhushan said Atishi was not aware about the details of the deliberations with the Kejriwal emissaries as she was not present during the negotiations.

The noted lawyer said he and Yadav have already sent their responses to Marlena on the issue.  In the letter, Marlena complimented AAP leader Sanjay Singh for trying to build a consensus between the two warring factions.

Bhushan and Yadav have convened a meeting of the volunteers and their supporters on April 14 to chalk out their future course of action.

Last week, Bhushan had written an open letter to Kejriwal accusing him of turning AAP a “high command-oriented” party and said “God and history will not forgive what you are doing to the party.”