File picture of AAP leader Yogendra Yadav.
Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were removed from a key decision-making panel of the Aam Aadmi Party because they attempted to ensure the party's defeat in the Delhi elections, four prominent party leaders have alleged.
The leaders, including Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, issued a statement to explain the removal of the two founder members. They said they were "forced" to do this to counter the public statements made by Mr Yadav and Mr Bhusan.
The scathing statement -- which leaves the rift in the party wide open -- accuses Mr Bhushan of asking party leaders not to come to Delhi to campaign and even attempting to stop donations to the party.
It alleges that Mr Bhushan told party leaders that a defeat in the Delhi elections was "necessary to get Arvind Kejriwal to his senses". The leaders even said they had evidence that Mr Yadav "planted stories" and talked "off the record" to the media to discredit party chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
"It is good that things that were being said through other people are now being made by some of the frontline leaders. I think time has come for the whole country to know about the matter," Mr Bhushan said today.
Mr Yadav tweeted:
The point-wise charge-sheet also accuses Mr Bhushan's father, Shanti Bhushan, of attempting to discredit the party.
AAP took umbrage at Shanti Bhushan's comment that Kiran Bedi, picked by rival BJP as its chief ministerial candidate to counter Mr Kejriwal, was a more worthy candidate.
"Party workers were astounded. They asked what he was doing in AAP if he felt this way," the statement said.
The sacking of Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav from the Political Affairs Committee last week was the denouement of an intense war of words that revealed deep fissures in the party days after it swept the Delhi elections.
As Mr Kejriwal left for Bangalore on a 10-day break, another senior leader, Mayank Gandhi questioned the manner in which Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan were removed.