In AAP, calls for Somnath Bharti’s ouster grow louder

Bharti had begun to fall out of favour with Kejriwal and a dominant section of the AAP in recent months and was being seen as a ‘loose cannon’ as he refused to take orders from senior party leaders, said party insiders. He would go on news channels and make out of turn comments that hurt the party, they said.

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Recently, speaking on the Delhi government’s tussle with the Delhi Police, he had said, “I am fully confident that if the Delhi government is given full control, even beautiful women will be able to go out after midnight without fear.” His sexist comments received strong backlash on social media, while party leaders reportedly perceived it as more unnecessary trouble.

Even as the party sent out repeated messages to the absconding legislator since Tuesday to surrender before the police, he continued to stay in hiding, hoping for reprieve from the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, when the Supreme Court deferred its hearing on his anticipatory bail plea to Monday, Bharti yet again made it known to party members that he would not come out of hiding till then.

“His vanishing act since Tuesday is hurting the party politically. His absconding points towards an admission of guilt. This goes against the party line. He could have just listened to party leaders and surrendered before the police. He would have got bail and there would be no loss of face,” said a senior party leader.

Strong voices within the party have now begun to call for Bharti’s removal from positions of responsibility as his actions have resulted in serious backlash against the AAP, particularly on social media. When a case of domestic violence was filed against Bharti in June, the party chose to look the other way and instead questioned the “uncanny alertness” of the Delhi Police in handling the case.

Sources in the party maintained that an emerging faction within the AAP, which ‘sympathises’ with Bharti, would not hear of distancing him, leave alone dropping him from party posts. Bharti is in-charge of a few states in South India in AAP’s ‘Mission Vistaar’.

This, however, is not the first time that Bharti has caused trouble within the party. Senior party workers told The Indian Express that on several previous occasions, the AAP leader had been pulled up by Kejriwal for disrupting plans during election campaigns. But as he remained a committed follower, he went scot-free, they said.

As his image of a ‘loose cannon’ stuck on, Bharti, who was the law minister during Kejriwal’s 49-day stint, was dropped from ministerial positions in the following term.

Till earlier this year, Kejriwal fervently backed Bharti and backed him in the row over the midnight raid in Khirki Extension.

“He could have told people that he will come in the morning and slept off under a warm quilt like any other minister. But he did not. Anything could have happened to him. You won’t find such a minister in India,” Kejriwal had said then. Later, the chief minister yet again backed him, saying, “Isn’t a drug and prostitution racket active in Khirki Extension?”

Senior party leaders maintained that in the Khirki Extension incident, they had seen video footage that proved Bharti did not “assault or even touch the women” and “carried out the raid as it should have been done”.

AAP’s National Executive members Naveen Jaihind and Gopal Rai, following a meeting on Thursday, told The Indian Express, “Bharti’s issue was not discussed in the national executive meeting today. It was not even on the agenda. There is nothing left to discuss on it. When the party national convenor has said that he should surrender before the police, there are no two ways about it. There is a consensus that he should surrender.”

However, another faction in the party maintained that Bharti is being framed and the party should ‘believe’ in him and not distance itself from him.