File Photo: Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan at a press conference in New Delhi. (Press Trust of India)
The Aam Aadmi Party has expelled rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan for indiscipline and anti-party activities. Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha have been expelled as well.
The decision from the party's disciplinary action committee ends the month-old bitter and public acrimony that had started soon after the party swept to power in Delhi.
Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan maintain they were being hounded and victimised for taking on party chief Arvind Kejriwal and objecting to what they call his dictatorial ways. AAP accused them of trying to unseat Mr Kejriwal and undermine its campaign in the Delhi election, which ended with a record result for India's youngest party.
A late-night official communique from the party said, "The Committee reached the unanimous conclusion that Mr Yogendra Yadav, Mr Prashant Bhushan and Mr Anand Kumar had indulged in gross indiscipline and anti-party activities."
Mr Jha had failed to furnish a response within the stipulated time. The committee was of "unanimous view" that he was also guilty of gross indiscipline and anti-party activities, the communique said.
"We've dealt with dissidence in the party, we want to move on, focus on fight against Modi's land bill," a party source told NDTV after the nearly six-hour meeting of the three-member disciplinary committee.
Over the last few weeks, Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan had been removed from all key party posts and internal committees. After they formed Swaraj Abhiyan - a parallel group of AAP leaders and volunteers who were asked about the viability of forming a new party - on April 14, the stage was set for the final showdown.
On Friday, the four leaders were sent a showcause notice, which detailed a series of charges against them. This evening, Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan sent scathing replies, calling the disciplinary committee illegal.
"The kangaroo trials, expulsions, witch-hunts, character assassination, rumour campaigns and emotional theatre to justify such macabre acts - all this is so true of the Stalinist regime," Mr Yadav said.