AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suspended its key overseas go-to man—Munish Raizada—who called Bihar strongman Lalu Prasad ‘a convicted corrupt criminal’.

Lalu, convicted in the multimillion fodder scam, is a bigger partner in the Grand Alliance, which led by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal-supported Nitish Kumar swept Bihar Assembly elections on Sunday.

Raizada, based in Chicago, had also questioned Kejriwal’s open support to Nitish, echoing the sentiments of a section, however small, of AAP—a party born out of an anti-corruption movement three years ago.

AAP said the reason behind Raizada’s suspension was his decision to form a website without authorisation, and leak the party’s internal communication.

Raizada was also an honorary adviser to AAP Health Minister Satyendra Jain.

The party feels he misled volunteers by projecting himself as the chief of party’s international cell—actually headed by senior leader Kumar Vishwas.

Raizada, who said he was co-convener of AAP’s NRI cell, told Mail Today on the phone from Chicago, “I did call Lalu corrupt. He is a convicted criminal.

"I raised a pertinent question: was it correct to support the leader of a coalition which also had Lalu in its fold? And it’s not me alone. There are a large number of volunteers who were against Arvind supporting Nitish.”

AAP spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon says the party had issued a notice to Raizada on November 7, asking him to refrain from ‘anti-party activities’, but he did not listen.

“The party had to suspend his primary membership, and relieve him of organisational duty,” said Menon, who is a senior officebearer in AAP’s NRI cell. Raizada was also AAP’s one of the shortlisted Lok Sabha candidates for Chandigarh in 2014.

The party finally gave the ticket to Bollywood actor Gul Panag. Was he suspended because he called Lalu corrupt?

“It does not matter. Corruption charges against Lalu have been proven in court. Nobody can deny this. Many AAP volunteers didn’t want the party to support the grouping which also had Lalu. People aired their views on Facebook and Twitter.

Lalu pictured celebrating Holi with party members at his residence in Patna on Saturday

But once the leadership took a call, we all supported that,” Menon told Mail Today. Raizada also questioned Kejriwal’s decision to support Nitish?

“Again, it’s the leadership which thought Nitish should be the Bihar chief minister. The party decided to encourage people to vote him to power. But that’s not the issue here,” she said.

Raizada says the website—ironically called Lokpal, a hitherto unfulfilled promise of AAP to put in place a robust anti-corruption mechanism—is a platform for party volunteers to ensure internal democracy, and preserve the ideals on which AAP was founded.

“Please see the website. It’s a pressure group. There is no antiparty activity,” he said. AAP however says it cannot allow people to form a body within the party and use it for disruptive purposes. “We also had a few people forming AAP Volunteer Action Manch or AVAM before this year’s Delhi Assembly elections,” Menon said.

AVAM had been saying the party lacked inner democracy, and also got support from AAP’s patriarch Shanti Bhushan. AAP expelled founder members Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and Anand Kumar in April this year for ‘anti-party activities’.

The party in August suspended Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi and Fatehgarh Sahib MP Harinder Singh Khalsa on the same charges. They all basically questioned Kejriwal’s style of functioning. “Most likely, they will expel me from the party.

But we will continue to raise these pertinent questions,” Raizada said. Raizada has been associated with the party right from its formation and before that with India Against Corruption (IAC). “I sacrificed my job and took long leaves to strengthen the party.

But it has deviated from its core values,” he said. Kejriwal’s support to Nitish—a ploy to stall the expansion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP—had surprised many.

Though the Delhi chief minister did not mention Lalu throughout the Bihar campaign, his October 2013 tweet heavily criticising the RJD chief for ‘the crores of rupees he made in the fodder scam’ has been doing the rounds. Raizada has got support from Mayank Gandhi, a senior Maharashtra leader who is also not on the best of terms with AAP.

“AAP removes Raizada for creating a website for volunteers. What’s wrong with these guys? Why so highhanded? Action without seeing the content of the website. Height of intolerance,” Gandhi said in a series of tweets.

Raizada, practising as neo-natalogist in the US, on the Internet had asked people to vote if Kejriwal’s support to Nitish was correct. “Politics without principles leads you nowhere. However, I do not say BJP is less corrupt. But, Bihar people have chosen a lesser evil. How can people elect a convicted corrupt criminal? Back to the era of scams?” he wrote.

Gogoi to Mamata, everyone wants Prashant

Time for Prashant Kishor to take up a project

After assisting Nitish Kumar in achieving a resounding victory in his home state Bihar, now it’s time for Prashant Kishor to take up a similar project in Assam—his in-law’s place.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi spoke to Prashant on Tuesday to express interest in his services for the 2016 Assam Assembly polls.

Gogoi, who has been vocal about efforts to increase cooperation between secular forces after the Bihar verdict, has asked Prashant for a meeting to further discuss the details.

Prashant, 37, is learned to have responded favourably to Gogoi’s offer, though he is believed to have advised the Assam CM to route it though Rahul Gandhi’s office, as Congress follows a top-down approach. Congress had won 78 seats when Assam last went to polls in 2011.

Gogoi has served three consecutive terms as the CM and seeks to clinch power for the fourth time. In an effort to put up a strong counter to the BJP, Gogoi has reached the doorstep of Prashant Kishor.

The second invitation that reached Prashant on Tuesday was from Congress MP Amarinder Singh. One of Amarinder’s key aides spoke to Prashant and the ace election strategist is likely to meet the Punjab leader later this week in New Delhi.

Amarinder, a former Punjab CM who defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha polls, has his eyes fixed on the Assembly polls, scheduled for 2017. Congress had won 46 of Punjab’s 293 Assembly seats when elections were last held in Punjab in 2012.

Prashant is also likely to meet Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi this week. The Congress vice-president is also believed to have expressed his interest in an idea to create a Bihar-like alliance of secular parties across various states and to prepare a long-term plan to checkmate BJP in 2019 election. Prashant’s first job could be the Assembly elections in Assam.

The Gogoi government is said to have the toughest task at hand since 2001 when the party came to power in the state. Though the Congress retained power in 2006 and 2011, the party is facing anti-incumbency and dissidence.

To top it all, smarting under its successive defeats in Delhi and Bihar, the BJP will try everything to wrest Assam.

Prashant appears to have become the most sought after election strategist, after he successfully micromanaged Nitish Kumar’s election campaign in Bihar and trounced the BJP in a state where the saffron alliance had bagged 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats only last year.