For Arvind Kejriwal, A Word Of Advice From Kumar Vishwas After Delhi Rout

NEW DELHI: The changes in the Aam Aadmi Party's organisation structure promised after its debilitating defeat in the Delhi municipal elections this week could go right up to the top, senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas indicated on Saturday. In an interview to NDTV, the 48-year-old said the party was doing well under the leadership of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but he too needed to "shift" some of his work to others.

There have been suggestions that Mr Vishwas was angling for Mr Kejriwal's national convenor post, and wanted him to focus on the Chief Minister's post. Asked, he said this wasn't true and the party was doing just fine under Mr Kejriwal's leadership. But there was a fine print; hints that Mr Kejriwal could do better if he had a lesser load.

"He is the first among equals. (But) he is also human, has his capacity, his strength. Sometimes, it gets too much, he gets overburdened. He could shift some of his work to people, give some of his work to others. He does still give it. On all this, we are going to have discussions... tomorrow, the day after. Earlier too, we sat for three-four hours," said the satirist-politician.

He was referring to the meeting of the party's political affairs committee on Thursday that went on for four hours. It was after this meeting that AAP leader Sanjay Singh announced the party would rebuild its organisational structure and conceded there was need to introspect. Today, Mr Kejriwal also released a short statement that acknowledged the party had made mistakes and promised to introspect, go back to the drawing board and evolve.

It was also here that the party decided to tone down its campaign against electronic voting machines. Explaining why this was the right course, Mr Vishwas said the EVMs were faulty but the challenge for the party was to win despite them, just as it had done in 2015.

Mr Vishwas, who was rumoured to be upset over being kept away from the party's campaign during elections to the Punjab assembly and Delhi's three civic bodies, however, rubbished speculation that he wanted to quit the party. Mr Vishwas said he had certain points to make but had decided to hold his peace during elections. After the election process ended this week, Mr Vishwas is learnt to have spoken his heart out at the Thursday meeting.