File Photo: Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan at a press conference in New Delhi. (Press Trust of India)
As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hurtles towards a widely-expected split, rebel leader Yogendra Yadav has said that the party's top man Arvind Kejriwal was always insecure about him and has replaced the fundamental founding principle of "swaraj" (self rule) with "one-man raj."
"Unfortunately, what we are witnessing looks nothing different from a Stalinist purge. It reminds me of Animal Farm again and again," Mr Yadav told NDTV on Monday night on The Buck Stops Here.
Mr Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were dropped from all party panels and stripped of important posts in what they see as a precursor to their expulsion from the party that they founded along with Mr Kejriwal in 2012. The rebels say that they are being punished for demanding more transparency and democracy in decision-taking within AAP; Mr Kejriwal and his supporters counter that the dissidents wanted him removed as Convenor, the party's top post, and tried to work against AAP to deliver a defeat in the recent elections.
AAP swept those polls with a record mandate, installing Mr Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi for a second time. But the party has since been beleaguered with an ugly internal rift, with stings, accusations of lies and forgery erupting every day.
"Initially, I thought victory makes many people magnanimous and I thought Arvind would be able to come out of that insecurity that he's had vis-a-vis me right from the beginning. But his mood was different after the election," Mr Yadav said, adding that he expects to be expelled soon as a member of AAP.
"This party is not the property of some leaders... it was not invented in Nagpur. This party has come up from a genuine democratic upsurge in this country and no one should allow this party to be captured," he said.
Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan have a called a meeting of volunteers on April 14, say sources, amid speculation that they may float a new party.