RSS trying to break AAP from within: Yogendra Yadav

Gurgaon, March 24 (IANS) The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is using dirty tricks to infiltrate the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), senior party leader Yogendra Yadav said Monday.

"AAP's Gurgaon district convener (Ramesh Yadav) was caught on sting saying 'AAP is a cobra that will bite the BJP'," Yadav, the AAP candidate in Gurgaon, told the media here.

"The AAP face (in Gurgaon) was actually working for the BJP," he added, referring to Ramesh Yadav.

Ramesh Yadav created a ruckus during party leader Arvind Kejriwal's Gurgaon public rally at Bhim Nagar Sunday evening and later quit the party along with his supporters.

Yogendra Yadav revealed that he was caught on sting last week asking AAP workers to covertly support the Bharatiya Janata Party, which considers the RSS its ideological parent.

"We have been receiving massages from some Gurgaon party workers that Ramesh Yadav was creating hurdles for people who wanted to join the AAP. We thought it was a routine complaint," he said.

"We sidelined Ramesh Yadav but didn't expel him because he was attached with the AAP from the beginning.

"Five days ago, a party worker gave us an eight-minute audio tape in which he (Ramesh Yadav) called the AAP as a 'B' team of the Congress and a 'cobra' and 'worse than cancer'.

"He was giving directions to someone to spoil the AAP's game and saying he will send 15 men and they can be used as AAP workers.

"RSS is a financially sound institution and is using all the tricks and tactics to infiltrate the AAP because the Congress has already accepted defeat but the BJP is facing a strong challenge from AAP," he said.

Yogendra Yadav said a fortnight back a few people from the AAP joined the BJP in the presence of BJP's Gurgaon candidate Rao Inderjeet Singh but it was claimed that over 250 AAP workers had left the party.

Similarly, on Sunday evening, Ramesh Yadav and three others resigned from the party but it was claimed that the entire Gurgaon unit had exited.

"Our team is very much strong in Gurgaon and in other cities. Such disinformation is spread by the RSS as they are using all kinds of tricks (against the AAP)," Yogendra Yadav said.

"We have 1.22 lakh registered AAP workers in Gurgaon constituency ... and we are all united."