I am being targeted by leaders in AAP: Mayank Gandhi

Mumbai/ New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) Senior AAP leader Mayank Gandhi complained on Saturday of being targeted by a section of his party for challenging a gag order on March 5 and also revealing about the proceedings of the AAP national executive meet.

On the same day, former party member Anjali Damania also said that she had quit the party last year because she was "frustrated" with the party's functioning.

Gandhi claimed a "concerted attempt" was being made in the social media to label him "anti-party and anti-AK (Arvind Kejriwal)" and reiterated his statement that a price might have to be paid (by him).

"A small group of party decision makers in Delhi has already removed me from the informal BBM group. Attacks have begun against me from AAP leader Ashish Khetan and others. Some dissatisfied members from Maharashtra have started giving interviews against me, some old cases are being re-opened," Gandhi said in a blog.

He wrote that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may decide not to fight the BMC polls (Mumbai) or delay the decision for the same, the leadership of Maharashtra will be challenged and discredited by some individuals and information would be leaked to the media.

"More will come and I will be finally humiliated so much that I will quit. That was what was planned for (AAP leaders) Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, but they overturned the plan by staying in the party.

"Let me see if I can withstand the muck that will be thrown," Gandhi said, expressing apprehensions about the future.

Damania, who was the convener for Maharashtra's AAP unit, also stated on Saturday why she had quit on June 5 last year along with state secretary Preeti Sharma-Menon.

"When I and Preeti Menon had resigned from our posts, there were some reasons behind it. For the first and the last time in my life, I had lied that I was resigning for my family (party).

"But actually, I was frustrated by the games and conflicts of these people. The so-called leaders of Maharashtra did not even raise issues in Maharashtra, nor did they campaign," Damania said.

On March 4, the AAP ,following a national executive meet, announced that it had decided to drop Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, from its nine-member decision-making Political Affairs Committee (PAC), the supreme body in the party.

The party was formed in 2012 and came to power in Delhi for the second time last month by sweeping 67 of the 70 seats in the assembly.

Referring to his previous blog, Gandhi asserted that he had "personally challenged" a gag order on the proceedings of the national executive and it was not intended to be any form of defiance against the party leadership.

"I am generally non-confrontational...But now is the time to take a stand. This is not to weaken the party nor our leadership, but to strengthen the AAP and the principles that we have espoused," Gandhi wrote.

He also wrote: "I want to tell the country that there is a huge difference and in the next few weeks, we volunteers shall demonstrate the same."

Gandhi also called for the need for mass participation in the AAP's decision-making processes.

He said it was time to participate in the party functioning in the best traditions of 'Swaraj', non-confrontational, graceful and constructive, respectful to the leadership.

Gandhi, however, reiterated that he truly believed Kejriwal was the hope for the country and his statements were neither rebellious, nor anti-leadership or meant to draw personal attention.