A successful founder-leader recapturing his own political party is a rare and rather strange occurrence. Arvind Kejriwal, the face and soul of AAP, has patiently reasserted his authority and democratically reclaimed the party from a few intellectuals who made a futile attempt to grab the party’s reigns.

The AAP insiders call these intellectuals led by Yogendra Yadav, the “seminar socialists”, and claim that they are vote-less wonders who had failed miserably in the party. “These intellectuals failed in predicting the Lok Sabha poll outcome in Haryana and lost their deposits too. So, soon after the polls they took on Kejriwal to divert attention from their blunders in politics and psephology,” says a senior AAP leader privy to all internal discussions.

Yadav along with the father-son lawyer duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan became the core ginger group within AAP taking on Kejriwal over issues of inner party democracy, personality cult, and worse, over selection of candidates. Yogender Yadav and Prashant Bhushan almost vetoed 12 candidates in the nine-member Political Affairs Committee (PAC). Finally, after the adjudication of the “internal Lokpal”, Admiral L Ramdas, only two candidates were dropped.

All this while, the ginger group ensured that Kejriwal did not have his way, easily. “We have audio recordings to prove that stories were planted against Kejriwal by the ginger group in various newspapers. Media manipulation was rampant and there was even some support from within for AVAM, which was out to destroy AAP at BJP’s behest. Kejriwal was being blackmailed at every juncture with threats of exposure of so-called tainted candidates. Then, Shanti Bhushan came out openly in support of Kiran Bedi’s candidature and there was no fig leaf left, thereafter,” said the top AAP leader.

Kejriwal was waiting patiently for the polls to be over. So, in his absence, Kumar Vishwas dramatically announced at the national executive meeting last Thursday that Kejriwal does not want to remain AAP’s national convenor as he cannot continue to work with Yadav and the Bhushans. Most of the invitees, apart from the 21 members, lashed out at the ginger group for all that they did to Kejriwal, the party’s poll efforts and the Delhi Election Campaign Group (DECG). The meeting with breaks for lunch and tea went on till late in the night and finally 17 members of the national executive visited Kejirwal to insist that he should continue and reconstitute the PAC, dropping Yadav and Prashant Bhushan (Bhushan Sr. is only an ordinary AAP member).

This decision to empower Kejriwal to reconstitute the PAC was ratified the next morning when Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were absent. It seems 13 of the 17 present voted against the ginger group: again a massive mandate for Kejriwal that gives him an opportunity to reshape AAP without opposition, gathering together only those who believe in him and are ready to march together.

It is interesting to note that Yadav was never part of DECG. The three elections, back-to-back, have given AAP leaders greater confidence and experience. Apart from DECG, there are about 40 volunteers who can translate that experience into electoral action next time, probably during the Punjab polls. Till then, with former journalist Ashish Khaitan as vice-chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission and key strategist Ashish Talwar shifting to the secretariat, the new Kejriwal team is getting ready without the heavyweights dragging them down.