New Delhi: With each passing day, the Aam Aadmi Party's internal discords are growing in number. This time the difference of opinion among party members is about who will chair the National Council (NC) Meeting slated for next Saturday.
While Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal's supporters stand by a clause in Party's constitution according to which Kejriwal should chair the meeting, those holding a different opinion are trying to pitch someone other than the CM. This has brought the party to another stalemate situation.
AAP had been riding on a bumpy road since the time its senior leadership is having conflicts over ouster of Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from Political Affairs Committee (PAC).
One section of the party is pitching party's Lokpal Admiral Ramdas's name for chairing the NC meet however, the rest vouch by the Article 7 of the AAP constitution which covers “Rules of Conduct for Business”.
Point A (i) of this Article states, “The respective Convener shall chair meetings of the national/state/district/block/primary Council/Executive. In the event of the Convener not being available, the concerned body may elect a person to chair the particular meeting.”
Meanwhile, posters calling for a “neutral chair” are appearing on Twitter with Ramdas's photo juxtaposed to it. Sources even claim that messages attempting to rally support for Ramdas have been doing rounds.
On the other hand, sources close to Kejriwal are coming out with reasons that why Ramdas does not qualify for the chair of the Council. “By definition of what the Lokpal is, Admiral Ramdas is not a member of the party's NC. The PAC or the National Executive has to decide if an external invitee will be called in, and it is clear that this will not happen. Kejriwal is clearly the man qualified to be chair of the NC. For a change in the constitution, there needs to a two-thirds majority,” a leader said.
Last week, in a note released by AAP, Admiral Ramdas was mentioned to be held in “high esteem” by the party and it had stopped short of denying that he could be removed as the Lokpal.
Privately, many Delhi leaders have expressed discontent at Ramdas's role in the Bhushan-Yadav controversy and his seeming ‘tilt' towards the leaders.
Admiral Ramdas is yet to share his viewpoint with media.
