New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) on Monday expelled rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha for 'anti-party' activities, party spokesperson Deepak Bajpai said.
The decision to expel the four leaders was taken at AAP National Disciplinary Committee which met on April 20. The committee claimed that the four leaders had made a request after which the deadline for submitting their explanations had been extended till 3 pm on April 20.
But only Yadav, Bhushan and Kumar replied while Jha failed to do so. However, the response of the first three were found to be "unsatisfactory" following which they were charged with gross indiscipline and anti-party activities.
AAP claimed that Yadav, Bhushan and Kumar violated the Code of Conduct detailed in Article VI A (a) of the party's constitution. Jha failed to furnish his response but he was also charged with the same offence as the other three.
AAP had on April 17 served show-cause notices to the four senior leaders and removed them from important committees. Yadav had called the show-cause notice a "pre-scripted drama" where the outcome is already decided and well-known.
In his reply to the notice, Yadav sent a long letter to the AAP leadership in which he wrote that he decided to explain his stand only because a "non-response could be seen as an admission of guilt and could give credence to some of these ridiculous charges".
The rebel leaders had also raised objection to the presence of Ashish Khetan and Pankaj Gupta in AAP's disciplinary committee.
Bhushan had alleged that Khetan planted stories for Essar in Tehelka magazine where he used to work.
"Ashish Khetan planted stories for Essar in Tehelka. He wrote stories in favour of 2G accused. Essar paid Tehelka Rs 3 crore for its Thinkfest," he had said.
He also claimed that another party leader Pankaj Gupta took Rs 2 crore from shell companies.
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