Suspended AAP leader demands transparency ahead of NC meeting

Mumbai: Suspended AAP leader Munish Raizada on Monday demanded that the party leadership hold a free, fair and transparent meeting of its National Council which is scheduled on November 23 in Delhi.

Raizada, who is a founder member of Lokpal.Us (www.Lokpal.Us), that claims to be an internal pressure group within the AAP, said the party "is sitting on a volcano and it can erupt any time, if transparency and democracy are not restored in it".

Raizada, the former co-convener of AAP's Chicago-based NRI Cell, was suspended from the party's primary membership last week over "anti-party activities".

Speaking from Chicago, he told PTI, "Only selective invitations are being sent and the agenda of the meeting has been withheld. I demand the party to upload the list of current National Council (NC) members and agenda on the website."

"The meeting should be held with live coverage as AAP is a volunteer-driven party and preaches full transparency and accountability in its conduct. I also appeal to avoid the deployment of bouncers unlike before."

He said the 'One Man One Post' principle, if applied in letter and spirit in the organisation, would create a lot of scope for grooming other leaders in the organisation.

However, Preeti Sharma Menon, national spokesperson of the AAP, refuted the charges and said Raizada was a "disgruntled" party worker and was being promoted by the Opposition.

"Our overseas wing is being handled successfully by our leaders like Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, and is working to expand the party's base overseas," she said.

"As far as agenda and invitations are concerned, of course the agenda is being given final touch and invitations have also been sent. Since there have been few splinter groups, so naturally, invitations have been sent to only those members who are still in the party.

She stated that putting the names of NC members on the website is out of question, as they also need privacy.

Menon also rubbished the allegation that AAP took the services of bouncers in the last party meeting.

They were old AAP volunteers and terming them as bouncers is very shameful, she said.