‘Rebel’ Kumar Vishwas removed as AAP’S Rajasthan in-charge
NEW DELHI/JAIPUR: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday announced its decision to remove rebel leader Kumar Vishwas from his position as the party’s in-charge for the pollbound Rajasthan. He will be replaced by AAP’S national treasurer Deepak Bajpai.
After his removal, 47-yearold poet-turned-politician alleged that he was not informed of the party’s decision officially, and he learnt about it through media reports. He also said that he was not even invited for the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting, where the decision was reportedly taken.
“During a meeting of the party’s PAC held on Monday, it was decided that Deepak Bajpai will now take charge as the state in-charge for Rajasthan,” said senior party leader Ashutosh.
Ashutosh also announced that the AAP will contest the elections from Rajasthan — which is due later this year — “with complete vigour” under the leadership of Bajpai.
Vishwas, who is among the founder members of the party, was dropped from the key post, which was offered to him as a peace offering in May 2017, after his open rebellion against the party’s leadership.
He had expressed his displeasure following AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan’s allegations calling him a “BJP agent”. Khan was suspended from the PAC, but a few months later his suspension was revoked.
“Kumar is a senior party leader. Rajasthan’s responsibility was on his shoulders but because of his busy schedule, he was not able to dedicate the time required to strengthen the organisation there,” Ashutosh said.
In the past one year, Vishwas has had several run-ins with the party leadership.
The most recent among the tussles was Vishwas’s refusal to apologise to AAP’S political adversaries when chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders sent out letters to opponents to get rid of defamation cases against them.
“How can the PAC make a decision if one of its members is not even informed of the meeting? This move means only one thing that I (Vishwas) was given the charge of Rajasthan only to distract attention from the allegations made by Amanatullah Khan and to save themselves from the anger of the volunteers,” said a statement released by Vishwas on Wednesday.
This move, however, has not come as a surprise for the party’s Rajasthan unit.
“He (Vishwas) was neither talking about Rajasthan nor visiting the state. Bajpai has been visiting the state regularly for nearly two months and has been doing assessments and meeting with party office-bearers,” Rajasthan AAP coordinator Devender Shastri said.