Yet another controversy hits trouble-ridden AAP

Just when the dust was settling on inner-party dissent and the party was barely recovering from widespread flak after the suicide of a Rajasthan farmer during its anti-Land Bill rally in Delhi, a new controversy hit the AAP on Monday.

Senior leader Kumar Vishwas, considered close to party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was accused by a female party volunteer of not rebutting “rumours” about an illicit liaison with her, and “ruining her reputation.”

Vishwas was summoned by the Delhi Commission for Women after the volunteer approached it, seeking its intervention in forcing the AAP leader to dispel the allegations.

She claimed to have campaigned for Vishwas in Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and said she had written separate letters to Kejriwal and Police Commissioner BS Bassi on the issue but neither had responded.

While Vishwas refuted the allegations as “false and baseless”, saying it was part of a defamation campaign against the AAP by rival parties, the BJP and Congress got fresh ammunition. The Congress hit at Kejriwal, accusing him of showing insensitivity as the complainant had “knocked” at his door seeking help. However, at a press conference, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said: “AAP is being targeted. There is no basis for the allegation. Please spare our families”.

Of late, Kejriwal, once a media pet, has been smelling “a very big conspiracy” by a section of the media to “finish off AAP”.

On Sunday, while defending his Law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar on allegations of a fake degree, Kejriwal had alleged that a section of the media has accepted a supari (contract) for “finishing off AAP”, suggesting that there should be a “public trial” of the media for airing factually incorrect content.

The AAP’s troubles do not seem to end since it swept to power in Delhi in February.

The latest controversy comes barely a few days after Kejriwal managed to quell a public war in his party, leading to the sacking key dissenters, led by Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.

The duo, who had raised questions about Kejriwal’s “authoritarian” style of functioning among other things, has since launched a movement called the Swaraj Samvad.

Rumblings within the party continued on Monday, with close to 350 AAP volunteers in Maharashtra resigning in support of Bhushan and Yadav and in protest against the “murder of democracy” in the party.

Meanwhile, a release by the Swaraj Abhiyan said a meeting of “all the volunteers” on Sunday “unanimously” passed a resolution, saying that “all workers of Aam Aadmi Party, Gurgaon will participate in all programmes of Swaraj Abhiyan and in case the party remove us from membership as our leaders were ousted, we shall be ready for such sacrifice for the sake of Swaraj.”

Meanwhile, Kejriwal has directed all government officials not to entertain the requests of MLAs or ministers seeking free passes of events or concerts. According to a source, he has told his Principal Secretary to communicate to all the departments to put a blanket ban on demands of free passes for entertainment events.