The unhappy aadmi: How Kumar Vishwas episode exposes AAP’s internal faultlines

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal celebrates AAP’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015. Vishwas is still with the party. Manish Sisodia has taken the role of Kejriwal’s deputy both in AAP and Delhi government. Other leaders like Sanjay Singh and Ashish Khetan have taken the backseat in AAP.

Kumar Vishwas

Vishwas was one of the key leaders in the party since its founding. He was popular with crowds at election rallies and roadshows. He was a regular face of the party on news TV channel debates where he took on feisty anchors in their debate shows. He was never an office-bearer in the party but still, he commands immense respect from the party cadres who fondly call him “bhaiya” (elder brother).

Vishwas was given the ticket to fight the Lok Sabha election in 2014 against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in his strongheld constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. Despite losing the election by a huge margin, Vishwas still has admirers cutting across party lines. He would often praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi and some of his government’s initiative and often criticise too. His open criticism and distance from party’s affairs indicated that all was not well between him and Kejriwal. Reports kept emerging from time to time that he wanted to quit the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. But, he has maintained that he has no such intentions.

As the party went through a series of resignations, ouster and defections, Vishwas stood by the party and Kejriwal. The 2015 Delhi assembly election victory brought him back into the picture with Vishwas pictured in celebrations, giving interviews, taking digs at Opposition and criticising defectors. But Vishwas was apparently miffed with the party’s leadership in the way it was delegating roles and positions to people, turning a blind eye to issues of importance, attempting to gag leaders including him, taking potshots and political opportunism on issues of national security. All this has brought him and Kejriwal to a situation where the duo, once seemed as close as brothers, has now resorted to a compromise to save face. Vishwas has been made in-charge of Rajasthan as part of the bargain.

Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan (left) and lawyer Prashant Bhushan (file photo).

Prashant Bhushan

Prashant Bhushan joined Kejriwal from the time they were part of Kejriwal’s ‘mentor’ Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption movement. The experienced Supreme Court lawyer and his father Shanti Bhushan were instrumental in forming the AAP. They drafted the Jan Lokpal bill. They provided legal support, like party’s registration, formulation of party’s constitution, setting up units, protecting the group from the barrage of lawsuits that had started pouring in, getting senior members of the civil society to join their cause and provide relevant starting resources ranging from societal and political know-how.

The Bhushans have had a longtime association with the political establishment in the country. Shanti Bhushan is one of the most senior lawyers of Supreme Court. He has served as law minister in the Morarji Desai government. The father-son duo donated the first corpus of ₹1 crore donation, while other members’ donation amounted to ₹21 lakh.

In 2015, Prashant Bhushan was accused of cherry picking candidates that he would support for campaigns and at least a dozen were termed undeserving by him. He went across the country meeting several leaders of the Left which was too close to comfort for members. In a PAC meeting headed by Kejriwal, he was expelled from the party.

Yogendra Yadav launched his political party Swaraj India with Prashant Bhushan. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

Yogendra Yadav

The social scientist first gave the idea of alternative politics from the IAC stage and pushed for the political alternative to Anna’s movement. A suggestion that came under criticism from leaders like Kiran Bedi. Yadav was one of the main founders of the party and served as the chief poll strategists in terms of calculations of voter demographics, caste assessments, candidate selections etc. His role was vital to the party’s victory in 2015 when AAP won 67 out of 70 seats.

But, Yadav also had a bitter fallout with Kejriwal. Soon after the 2015 victory, talk started floating in party circles that he was conspiring against Kejriwal and aiming to replace him as the party’s national convenor. Like Bhushan, Yadav was expelled as well on accusations of acting against the interests of the party.

Both Yadav and Bhushan later founded their own political outfit Swaraj India that fought the Delhi MCD election recently. Though the outfit has failed miserably in the polls, both are actively mobilising support on the ground level and are targeting voters like farmers and slum dwellers.

BJP leader Shazia Ilmi. (File Photo)

Shazia Ilmi

One of the most popular faces in the party when it was founded, Ilmi lost the first assembly election by a very small margin. Despite the defeat, she enjoyed strong support with the party leadership who often projected her as the connecting point for women voters. After woeful electoral outings and facing criticism from party supporters and members, she defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party. She serves as party spokesperson now and is seen regularly on prime-time debates representing BJP.