AAP triumphs in mayor, deputy mayoral polls in MCD
AAP’s Mahesh Kumar Khichi defeated his BJP rival with a narrow margin of three votes, securing 133 votes against Kishan Lal’s 130.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) sixth national council meeting on Thursday witnessed some awkward scenes amid the widening rift between its convenor Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Kumar Vishwas.
Vishwas, who has been anchoring the council meeting for the last five years, was not included in the party’s official speakers’ list this time. However, when it was the turn of state conveners to speak, some national council members demanded that Vishwas be invited on stage, not in his capacity as Rajasthan chief, but as a national-level AAP leader.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia seconded the idea and invited Vishwas to speak. Vishwas, however, declined and refused to speak despite being asked thrice. He soon left the meeting but not before taking a dig at the party.
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Talking to the media before leaving the venue, Vishwas said some people in AAP are afraid to let him speak. “I thought only Congress and BJP were scared of me. But it seems even some leaders in AAP are afraid to let me speak,” Vishwas said.
The poet-turned-politician has been at loggerheads with the AAP leadership lately. The rift between Vishwas and some senior AAP leaders started after Vishwas criticised Kejriwal for questioning the surgical strikes on Pakistan and blaming EVMs for the loss in the Punjab elections.
Sources said Vishwas was many times told not to speak against party leaders but he never paid any heed and continued to question certain decisions of the leadership.
On 31 October, Vishwas fired a fresh salvo at the AAP leadership when the three-member committee revoked the suspension of party legislator Amanatullah Khan, who had accused Vishwas of “being an RSS agent”.
Dismissing it as a decsion of the “kitchen cabinet”, Vishwas had told The Statesman that he will expose those “who are bent on destroying the party”.
However, senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh while dismissing the incident at Thursday’s meeting said that there is no rift between Vishwas and the party leadership.
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