A day after an AAP volunteer accused senior leader Kumar Vishwas of not clearing the air on “rumours” about an illicit liaison with her, its national secretary Pankaj Gupta today dismissed the development as a “non-issue”, saying it could be a “vendetta” against Vishwas and AAP waged by some “anti-party forces”.
“There are forces which are running a vendetta against the party and working against it. A large section of corporate, political establishments would not want AAP to succeed,” said Gupta who is camping in Goa and holding meetings of volunteers to strengthen the party cadre.
Referring to the woman’s accusation that Vishwas was not dispelling the perception about an illicit liaison with her, Gupta said, “Think of it what did the woman say? She said there is nothing. Some social media are trying to blame her”.
“I watched television last evening. I watched television for one hour and could not find what was the issue. Where is the issue? There was a no issue. It is a non-controversy,” he added.
The issue gathered the steam after the woman had approached the Delhi Commission for Women which has issued summons to Vishwas, considered close to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and his wife, asking them to appear before it.
“I didn’t see anything by which anyone can make the issue.
Kumar is being blamed for not coming to media and saying that there is nothing (between the two), said Gupta, who was accused of accepting donations from dubious companies by now expelled leader Prashant Bhushan earlier.
When asked about the internecine conflict in AAP and the subsequent expulsion of senior leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, Gupta said such things happen in other parties as well.
“There is nothing controversial in that. May be we could have handled (the issue) in a different manner,” he said.
Against the backdrop of frequent run-ins between the AAP and media, Gupta said, “We don’t handle the media perhaps the (way) other parties ?do. We lack experience, we put the facts the way they are. We are too much frank.”
He said AAP has always been projected as a “party of controversies” by the media which at the same time has “neglected” the achievements of the party since it came to power in Delhi.
“We have achieved a lot of significant things which should become the role model for other state governments…,” he said. .
–PTI