AAP removes Bhushan from disciplinary committee

New Delhi, March 29

The Aam Aadmi Party today removed party’s internal Lokpal Admiral L. Ramdas and Prashant Bhushan as the chief of National Disciplinary Committee, a day after the latter and senior leader Yogendra Yadav were expelled from the National Executive (NE).

(See Video: Bhushan removed from AAP disciplinary panel)

At an “emergency” NE meeting here, the party removed former Navy chief Ramdas from the internal Lokpal and set up a new Lokpal panel, comprising former IPS officers N. Dilip Kumar and Rakesh Sinha and educationist S.P. Verma.

“All these people have given their consent to be part of the party’s Lokpal panel,” party’s national secretary Pankaj Gupta said.

The AAP National Executive, while sacking Bhushan from the disciplinary committee, decided to replace him by a three -member panel headed by Dinesh Waghela. The other members are Arvind Kejriwal loyalist Ashish Khetan and national secretary Pankaj Gupta.

The removal of Ramdas came a day after he was sent an SMS asking him not to attend the National Council meeting to avoid “confrontation”.

Miffed over the snub, he then wrote a letter to the Political Affairs Committee criticising the leadership.

Ramdas said he had come from his village in Maharashtra to attend the meet. However, he said he would not attend the meet to “honour” the party’s request.

The AAP body also announced a committee that will take care of the April 22 agitation against the Land Acquisition Bill, when the party plans to gherao Parliament on the issue.

This committee comprises Ilyas Azmi, Prem Singh Pahadi, Yogesh Dahiya, Somendra Dhaka, Gurnam Singh and Kiran Vissa, which would decide on the details of the agitation programme.

The party has also formed a committee under the leadership of senior leader and PAC member Sanjay Singh to look into expansion of the organisation in other states. — PTI