Zee Media Bureau/Biplob Ghosal
New Delhi: Reacting to Aam Aadmi Party senior leader Shanti Bhushan`s comments on Arvind Kejriwal, party leader Prashant Bhushan has said that the issue should have been raised in the party instead of going public about it.
Prashant Bhushan, son of Shanti Bhushan differed with his father views that Kejriwal lacks organisational skills and said that the senior leader expressed his personal opinion.
Prashant Bhushan`s reaction comes after, Shanti Bhushan on Wednesday said that the AAP chief lacks organisational skills and is not competent to expand the outfit.
Shanti Bhushan, who is considered to be a mentor within AAP and has been associated with Kejriwal ever since the formation of the party, opined that though the former Delhi chief minister is intelligent, sharp and a great strategist, yet he lacks the skills needed to run an organisation.
The AAP senior leader criticised Kejriwal, saying that the latter lacks the ability to run the party at national level. Bhushan further said that the AAP chief should give the task of building the party to someone else.
"He does not have the kind of competence which can spread the message of the party all over India, which can quickly create elected structures of the party which nobody will be able to blame," he had said.
However, despite ridiculing Kejriwal`s organisational skills, Bhushan asserted that he is the right person to be the face of AAP and should remain the main campaigner.
Meanwhile, speaking to a news channel, AAP volunteer Karan Singh agreed with Bhushan`s views.
Singh said that due to inefficient management skills, the party featured so badly in the General Elections.
Meanwhile, the party has said that it does not agree with the comments made by Bhushan.
"The criticism by Bhushan, who is himself one of the founding members of the party, on this issue is misplaced.
"The biggest example of internal democracy is the party`s decision to contest Lok Sabha elections on a large number of seats, despite opposition from the AAP national convenor, Arvind Kejriwal," the party said.
Bhushan is not the first one to question Kejriwal`s style of functioning. Earlier too, senior leaders like Yogendra Yadav, Shazia Ilmi raised their voice against the AAP chief and complained of no internal democracy within the party. Ilmi even resigned from the party after she lost the Lok Sabha elections from Ghaziabad constituency, alleging that the crucial decisions within the party were only taken by few persons.
There were also reports that Yogendra Yadav was unhappy with party`s decision to not to contest Haryana polls scheduled later this year.
AAP, under the leadership of Kejriwal, had showcased an emphatic performance in 2013 Delhi Assembly polls by winning 28 seats in the 70-member Assembly.
The AAP, which formed the government with outside support of the Congress, however, quit after a 49-day stint.
Delhi has been under President`s Rule since then as no other party has sufficient seats to form the government on its own.
In the General Elections, Kejriwal unsuccessfully contested against Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency. Not only he lost the elections by a huge margin, his party managed to bag only four Lok Sabha seats.
