AAP rift between Kejriwal & Vishwas widens over RS seats

A sharp divide has developed in the Aam Aadmi Party of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over selection of candidates to fill three Rajya Sabha seats held by the Congress falling vacant on January 27.

AAP has an overwhelming majority in Delhi Assembly to win all three seats, but its Rajasthan in-charge Kumar Vishwas has smelt a conspiracy to the extend of ousting him from the party to deny him the Rajya Sabha berth promised by Kejriwal long ago. Vishwas is also a member of the party’s political affairs committee (PAC).

The AAP, at present, has no representation in the Upper House though it had bagged four Lok Sabha seats from Punjab in the 2014 Parliamentary polls. The BJP is adopting a multi-prong strategy to deny an easy entry of AAP in the Rajya Sabha.

The revolt by Kumar Vishwas, an eminent poet and thinker, is seen as the BJP''s attempt to create dissensions in AAP to dive the ranks. Kejriwal, however, sensed the trouble and rejected an influential group in the party demanding expulsion of Kumar Vishwas. Kejriwal’s logic was that a wrong impression should not go afloat that the AAP leadership was trying to ease out elements who did not share its doctrine.

Vishwas came out with a public statement in a reaction to the party’s decision to revoke the suspension of AAP legislator Amanatullah Khan, who had called him an "RSS agent."

AAP seems to be divided into two groups - the "Right wing" led by Vishwas, an ultra-nationalist satirist, and the faction he calls "the coterie", which includes PAC members such as Khan, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak.

Ashutosh is said to be a front runner for a Rajya Sabha seat, along with Sanjay Singh, who is in charge of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the AAP. Singh, whose stock in the party fell after the party came a distant second in the Punjab polls earlier this year, faces a litmus test in the municipal elections in Uttar Pradesh this month.

The AAP, at present, has no representation in the Upper House though it had bagged four Lok Sabha seats from Punjab.