It took a court hearing to bring Yogendra Yadav and Kejriwal Together

mangaloretoday.com/NDTV

New Delhi, March 17:  It took a court hearing to bring together Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav, the two estranged leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
 
Mr Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, and Mr Yadav had been ordered to appear in court on a defamation case filed by a lawyer who at one point planned to run for election as an AAP candidate.

The two leaders had not met since the Delhi election, which was swept by AAP. However, in the month since coming to power, the party has been besieged by deep infighting that has included stings by the two rival factions against each other.

 

Mr Kejriwal arrived first in court with his deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia. Mr Yadav, who, along with Prashant Bhushan was removed from a key decision-making body of AAP a few weeks ago, arrived a few minutes later. He sat in a different part of the court, but soon relocated to sit next to Mr Kejriwal. The pair exchanged pleasantries for a few seconds.

Lawyers ignored rules to take photos of the leaders together some were heard saying "you look good together" - an observation that refers to their wide and publicly-breached chasm.

Mr Kejriwal returned to Delhi last evening after a 10-day health sabbatical at a naturopathy clinic in Bangalore. Mr Bhushan, who, like Mr Yadav, has been accused by the chief minister’s supporters of plotting to undermine his authority, sent him a text message before he landed in Delhi seeking a meeting to "end the controversy."

Mr Yadav and Mr Bhushan have suggested that their differences with Mr Kejriwal are pivoted on his alleged refusal to take on board points of view that disagree, in any measure, with him. Party cadres and volunteers have urged the leaders to reconcile their differences.


There is Peace Now, Tweets AAPs Kumar Vishwas


Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has accepted an invitation to meet estranged colleagues Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan with this succinct response via text saying "will meet soon."

Mr Kejriwal was urged yesterday, also on text, by Mr Bhushan, to set aside some time for a conferral to "end the controversy", a considerably euphemistic description of the infighting that has erupted with brute force within the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP since its historic win in the Delhi election.

Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav were dropped earlier this month from a major decision-making body of AAP, reportedly at the urging of the Chief Minister and his supporters.  Since then, the party has been vertiginously placed with rival camps using and leaking letters and hidden camera stings to malign each other.

Mr Kejriwal returned to Delhi last evening after a 10-day health camp in Bengaluru.

Senior leaders from his team met with Mr Yadav late last night, said sources who described the talks as "positive."

"There is peace after a three-hour sleep. There is peace now. We will be successful," party leader Kumar Vishwas tweeted this morning.

The Kejriwal camp had alleged that Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav wanted the party to lose the Delhi Assembly elections and were attempting to remove the Delhi Chief Minister from the post of AAP National Convener, which makes him the top-most authority in the party.

Those close to Mr Bhushan and Mr Yadav say Mr Kejriwal is closed to any point of view that differs from his own, and ignore crucial inputs from senior party leaders including themselves, on important issues like which candidates to pick for the Delhi election.

Mr Yadav met briefly with the Chief Minister today when they were summoned to a Delhi court for a case that accuses them of defamation.