The factional war in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is out in the open. Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday chose to respond at length to the allegations leveled against them by party colleagues Manish Sisodia and others. Writing a long letter addressed to the party volunteers at large, they have explained their case and demanded a probe by the party ombudsman into the charges against them.

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Bhushan and Yadav have questioned why the internal matter of the party was floated in media when there is a provision for probe by the party ombudsmen. They have asked the two party ombudsmen to probe the allegations made on them by top leaders of the party.

In the letter, the leaders have made it clear that the entire issue causing rift in the party is no where related to the post of national convener as being highlighted in the media.

 “..Media reports say that the entire issue is confined to the chair of the national convener and claim that we wanted Yogendra Yadav as national convener of the party. We have never discussed this issue in the party formally or informally. Post of national convener was never an issue in the party...,” the letter states.

The letter claims that rift in the party started when Arvind Kejriwal wanted to form a government Delhi after the poll rout in Lok Sabha elections.

“... While most of the MLAs of the party supported him in this move, party workers across the country opposed this decision... The effort to form a government was on till November 2014...,” claims the letter.

“... Manish Sisodia , Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh demanded that members of the PAC should take the responsibility of the poll debacle and resign from their post, so that they a new committee could be formed. We both opposed this unconstitutional move during that time. If we have had not done this, there would have been no difference between AAP and other political parties..,” the letter says.

Read full letter here