Expelled, Prashant Bhushan says AAP is khap

The AAP’s purge of dissidents from the party continued on Wednesday as it sacked its parliamentary party leader Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, who had spoken against the expulsion of Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the National Executive and replaced him with Arvind Kejriwal’s loyalist Bhagwant Mann.

Defending the party’s move of removing Dr Gandhi from the post, AAP leader Ashutosh said that the decision was taken by party’s top decision making body and it should be respected.

The party’s crackdown came hours after it expelled four founder leaders —Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the party on Monday night. Dr Gandhi, who had trounced Preneet Kaur in Patiala constituency in Lok Sabha polls last year, had been highly critical of the party leadership in the way Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav were ousted from the AAP’s top decision-making committees. He had even walked out from the AAP’s National Council meeting on March 28 in protest and had sent his message to Swaraj Samvad convention on April 14 organised by the rebel camp.

As the party hit back at Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav for attacking the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC), saying the dissidents had no respect for procedures and institutions, AAP leader Ashish Khetan said he will not spare Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan for levelling baseless allegations against him.

Launching scathing attack on Mr Kejriwal, Mr Bhushan said, “AAP is now run by a Khaap (panchayat). All dreams of a movement have been shattered by a small coterie and a dictator. At least now the nautanki (drama) is over. I feel deep regret, but no question of personal loss.”