There is much to worry about for Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal as Aam Aadmi Party’s internal fight is out in the open. In a meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan in Bhopal, the Madhya Pradesh AAP president and convener Alok Agarwal has resigned on Sunday along with his full executive body, consisting of around 2 dozen office bearers. He has written a letter to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, alleging conspiracy at the hands of the Delhi government minister and MP in-charge, Gopal Rai.
Alok Agarwal stated that “Gopal Rai was conspiring together with some corrupt workers for undesirable control of the organization. I am resigning from all my posts in MP due to prevention of work since the past 7 months.”
In his letter to Arvind Kejriwal, which is signed by all the resigning AAP officials, Alok Agarwal has put severe allegations on Rai. He stated, “A surprising conspiracy was hatched by the in-charge of Madhya Pradesh in order to gain undue control of the state leadership and organization. In this conspiracy, Gopal Rai used some people as a pawn. In the official documents received, it has become clear that an official had been trying to weaken the party in conjunction with our rival party Congress, 8 months before the election. The other officer involved in the conspiracy is the person who was found guilty of corruption in the money received by the party and the disciplinary committee expelled him.” Alok Agarwal further added, “Apart from them, there is a third person who defeated our strongest and most prominent candidate. Gopal Rai worked with them to weaken the party organization.’
Alok Agarwal categorically stated in the letter that he had informed the party about AAP’s Gopal Rai’s misdemeanors in June and July 2019, but the Political Affairs Committee of the AAP succumbed to Gopal Rai’s pressure and didn’t take any action. Alok Agarwal concluded his letter by writing that he and his officers are not ready to work with such a state in charge who is working to sink the organization instead of strengthening it.
This no doubt comes as a major blow to Arvind Kejriwal led AAP. It is evident that the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party was having issues since a long time, and instead of pro-actively resolving them, the party leadership pushed the issues away. Now, they have boiled up and have led to a mass resignation in the party.
The performance of AAP in Lok Sabha 2019 elections in MP was substandard and the party could not manage to win even a single seat in the state. This issue puts a light on the possible causes for the dismal performance in Madhya Pradesh. In fact AAP performed so poorly in the country that it won only one lone seat Punjab and not one in Delhi, where all the seats were bagged by the BJP. If the party members cannot function in unity, they cannot expect to garner votes from the citizens. As the AAP faces an existential threat and an ideological crisis, another blow of this magnitude shall be tough for the AAP to survive.