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As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) licks its wounds after the Delhi drubbing, its now-expelled co-founder and lawyer Prashant Bhushan has held his estranged brother-in-arms and AAP's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal responsible for the poll debacle.
In a post on X, Mr Bhushan accused Mr Kejriwal of changing the nature of AAP after it was founded as a transparent and democratic platform for alternative politics.
"A party formed for alternative politics which was supposed to be transparent, accountable & democratic was quickly transformed by Arvind into a supremo dominated, non-transparent and corrupt party which didn't pursue a Lokpal and removed its own Lokpal," said Mr Bhushan.
Targeting Mr Kejriwal, he said, "He built a 45 cr sheesh mahal for himself & began travelling in luxury cars. He binned 33 detailed Policy reports of expert committees set up by AAP, saying that the party will adopt expedient policies when the time comes."
'Sheesh Mahal' is an expression coined by the BJP to target Mr Kejriwal over alleged corruption and misuse of government funds in revamping the Chief Minister's residence during his term. The BJP's 'Sheesh Mahal' charge was central to its campaign and the AAP struggled to counter it.
"He (Kejriwal) felt that politics could be done by bluster and propaganda. This is the beginning of the end of AAP," Mr Bhushan added.
Mr Bhushan was part of the India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and worked alongside Mr Kejriwal to form the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012.
A 10-Year-Old Warning
In his post, Mr Bhushan also shared a 10-year-old open letter addressed to Mr Kejriwal. He wrote the letter in 2015 after AAP's disciplinary committee leadership expelled him and activist Yogendra Yadav, accusing them of anti-party activities.
In the letter, Mr Bhushan compared their removal to a Stalinist purge of dissenters. "After winning the Delhi elections with such a thumping majority, when you have such good fortune, you should be showing your best qualities to the people of this country. But unfortunately, your worst qualities have emerged now. The removal of the Lokpal, us and others who questioned the manner of our removal, reminds one of Stalin's purge of dissenters in the Communist party of Russia. You should read Orwell's Animal Farm to see the parallels between Stalin's Russia and what is happening in our party today. God and history will not forgive what you are doing to the party," he wrote.
Mr Bhushan added in the letter that just delivering on governance will not help the AAP achieve its dream of clean politics. "You feel that you can rectify everything by running the Delhi government well in the five years that you have. You think that if you deliver on governance, people will forget what you have done to the party. I wish you well in that endeavour. Even traditional political parties like Congress, BJP have done some governance. But the dream that we started with for clean and principled politics and corruption free governance was much much bigger. The fear that I have, is that after how you have behaved and the character traits that you have showed, this dream of clean and principled politics that the Aam Aadmi Party was founded on may well turn into a nightmare. But still, I wish you well," he wrote.
Back in 2015, when AAP had expelled Mr Bhushan, Mr Kejriwal had justified the decision, saying "limits were crossed" and "conspiracies hatched".
After a decade-long rule, AAP was voted out yesterday as the BJP made a capital comeback after 26 years. The BJP won 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly and the AAP could manage only 22. The party's top guns, including Mr Kejriwal, suffered defeat. Accepting the mandate, he congratulated the BJP and hoped that it would live up to the hopes and expectations of the people.
title="Latest and Breaking News on News Agency" />Kumar Vishwas Takes A Swipe
As AAP lost Delhi, poet Kumar Vishwas, another former party leader, took a swipe at the leadership. "When we got the news of Manish (Sisodia) losing from Jangpura, my wife, who is apolitical, started crying," he said. "My wife had once told him 'Bhaiya, you are not always going to be in power', Manish Sisodia shot back saying 'Abhi toh hai (I am in power today)," said Mr Vishwas, hinting at the AAP leader's arrogance when he was in power. Mr Vishwas expressed the pain he had felt when Mr Sisodia, his childhood friend, made this remark.
He said other parties must not display arrogance, but learn from the AAP's mistakes. "I hope others will not display this arrogance. Other parties will learn and profit from it. I congratulate the citizens of Delhi," he said after the results yesterday.
Hitting out at Mr Kejriwal, who lost the New Delhi seat to BJP's Parvesh Verma, he said, "I congratulate the BJP for the victory and I hope they'll work for the people of Delhi... I have no sympathy for a man (Arvind Kejriwal) who crushed the dreams of AAP party workers. Delhi is now free from him... He used those dreams for his personal ambitions. God has punished him. Today, justice has been delivered."