Had rejected Arvind Kejriwal's resignation, says Yogendra Yadav

New Delhi: Amid allegation that some senior leaders were trying to unseat party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav on Monday said he along with Prashant Bhushan too had rejected his resignation as party chief.

However, he said that the party should not fall prey to personality cult.

"We raised our hand. We said we cannot accept his resignation. He must continue to be the National Convenor because he deserves to be. Because that is the best thing that can happen to this party. Because he is a symbol and icon for the party and new kind of politics not just in Delhi and the entire country," Yadav said in an interview.

Kejriwal had tendered his resignation in the National Executive meeting held last week.

Crisis in the party intensified after Bhushan, in a letter to the national executive last week, said that the "one person-centric" campaign was making the party look like other parties and called for more "swaraj" within the organisation.

Along with Yadav, he also gave a joint letter to the national executive and demanded activation of an ethics and grievance committee.

Yadav added that although electoral politics requires a face, the party should make a conscious effort not to fall prey to personality cult.

"Within the organisation you have to ensure that we do not fall prey to personality cult. These are the things which we have to constantly struggle. Its not a special case that AAP has to struggle with.

"Its a real question of democratic procedure. I am happy that AAP is at least struggling with these questions and there are no easy answers," Yadav said.

He added that in a joint note to NE members in meeting last week, they had spelt out things which required immediate action and certain things which required long term action.

"We need an ethics committee which would ensure that whenever ethical questions come up we dont look like any other party. We have set high bars for ourselves. Autonomy for state units and the third question was strengthening internal democracy procedures.

"These are constructive suggestions no one would disagree with. Even Lokpal has raised similar questions and we need to raise similar questions in the Indian politics," Yadav said.