AAP's state units hit by factionalism, infighting

Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gears up for the Lok Sabha elections, the party is faced with factionalism in its various state units including Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) gears up for the Lok Sabha elections, the party is faced with factionalism in its various state units including Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

Giving out details of the kinds of friction reported from different states, a senior party leader said, they are based on four contradictions within AAP. First is the old versus the new.

Members in the party, who have been with it from Anna movement days, are feeling edged out by the new members who joined the party in huge numbers after the Delhi assembly elections.

The second is the members with political background versus those who have come from different movements.

The third is between the prominent members and the ordinary ones. And the fourth kind of friction is between the office bearers of national executive, national council, state and district committees and those outside these bodies. Majority of the states are facing problems on these counts.

Goa for example is besieged with conflict between the political and non-political members. Speaking to HT AAP’s Goa convener Rajeshree Nagarshekar admitted the fledgling party was facing an uphill task in the state due to “new entrants” who were causing trouble for the party.

In Gujarat, the members with political backgrounds are pitched against those who have come from different movements.

In Madhya Pradesh, party’s ex-spokesperson Kamal Srivastava who left the party, disillusioned as he was with AAP taking people on board without any criteria, said the party was divided into groups.