Kejriwal accused of poaching Cong MLAs: As it happened

Live Updates from the crisis which the Aam Aadmi Party is facing:

• "When I heard Arvind Kejriwal's voice on that tape, I broke down," she said, adding that, "I was shattered by what I heard, I spontaneously reacted, either this party works on 'Siddhant or it doesn't exist."
• "AAP is not political party, it is a dream of thousands of volunteers, I don't give right to any leader to mess around with it," ANI quoted Damania as saying.
• An upset Damania after quiting AAP said, "This is not what I want out of AAP".
• Arvind Kejriwal sidelined all the principles for his lust for power, says Shazia Ilmi.
• AAP senior leader Ashish Khetan, speaking on the sting operation, said, "Political realignment is not 'Jod-tod', that tape does not suggest at all that we accepted Congress' support through immoral means."
• The allegation of horse-trading levelled by Anjali Damania is based on a taped conversation between Rajesh Garg, AAP’s ex-MLA from Rohini, and Kejriwal in July 2014. Here's the transcript of the audio tape:

Kejriwal : AAP is prepared to take support from the 8 Congress MLAs. Manish Sisodia has been in touch with Congress MLAs but they don't seem to be keen on supporting AAP.
Garg: All the 8 Congress MLAs are ready to support AAP but Ajay Maken and Randeep Surjewala are creating obstacles.
Kejriwal: Because of the problems being created by Maken, Congress MLAs have not been able to take a final decision.
Kejriwal: We should not speak out at this time. We should speak out only if the Congress MLAs say publicly that they are prepared to support us.
Garg: We have to move fast else the Lt Governor may announce dissolution of the Assembly.

• Our fight is to ensure party remains true to its founding principles - Bhushan
• In the letter, we have given a background to recent happenings and responded to allegations levelled against us, says Prashant Bhushan.
• Prashant Bhushan and I have decided that we won't make any more statements in the media - Yadav
• Have requested the party that they should make the letter public like they did for yesterday's statement - Yadav
• Today, I and Prashant Bhushan wrote a letter to AAP volunteers to tell them everything they should know. The letter will be released everywhere, says Yogendra Yadav.
• AAP has meanwhile deputed Preeti Menon to speak to Anjali Damania after she quit the party.
• When a meeting happens these things will be discussed, says Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai on Anjali Damania's resignation and her allegations.
• Meanwhile, former AAP MLA Rajesh Garg has told the media that he had given the recording, which allegedly contained voice of Arvind Kejriwal discussing horse-trading, to Kumar Vishwas. “I am surprised this has reached media,” Garg said.

• I quit; I have not come into AAP for this nonsense. I believed him; I backed Arvind for principles not horse-trading, says Damania in a tweet.
• Amid the ongoing crisis in the party, senior leader from Maharashtra, Anjali Damania, has announced her resignation from the membership of the AAP.
• Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh has reacted on the letter written by AAP MLAs. He said, “Party will think about it, can't say what the decision will be.” 
• Prashant Bhushan's sister, Shalini Gupta, has meanwhile strongly denied allegations that she had requested members of the NRI team of the party to stop donations. "An article has recently been published, where the title of the article claiming that Prashant Bhushan's sister's emails take AAP to breaking point is extremely misleading and damaging. I have never sent any email to the NRI team asking people not to donate. No one in the NRI team has seen any such mail from me. People have spent hours searching their mailboxes and no one has found such a mail," Gupta told ANI in an email conversation.

• Kapil Mishra, AAP MLA from Karwal Nagar, has also demanded Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan's sacking from the party. He said, “We will not tolerate anyone trying to break our agenda no matter who it is. We want Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan to be expelled from the party.”

  He also refuted claims that AAP MLAs were being forced to sign a letter against Yadav and Bhushan. “Everyone is signing the letter on their own accord, no one refused until now,” Mishra added.

• Former AAP MLA Rajesh Garg says a large section of the party cadre is not happy with the way Yogendra Yadav has been planting stories in the media.

• Several AAP MLAs have written a letter to party chief Arvind Kejriwal and have asked him to consider removing Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan from the party to set an example.

Story so far

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) appears to be facing its worst crisis since inception with senior leaders levelling accusations and counter-accusations against each other.

On Tuesday, four leaders known to be close to party chief Arvind Kejriwal alleged that Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, as well as Shanti Bhushan, had attempted the party's defeat in the February 7 Delhi Assembly Elections. The allegation was levelled in a statement by deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, minister Gopal Rai and two other AAP leaders Pankaj Gupta and Sanjay Singh.

In response, Yadav said he hoped that the charge would lead to an "open, transparent dialogue" for the truth to prevail. Prashant Bhushan said: "Time has come for the country to know the whole truth about the matter and the truth will come out soon."

Just days ago, the AAP National Executive had on March 4 decided to "release" Bhushan and Yadav from the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) -- the party's highest decision-making body -- and assign them new responsibilities.

AAP's National Council is slated to meet on March 28 where several raging issues are likely to be discussed.