Kejriwal, according to the report, ‘listened in’ as Vishwas, a popular Hindi poet, ‘disclosed’ that he was ‘ready to take over as party chief’ adding that he enjoyed the support of the then cabinet minister, Kapil Mishra, and 33 other MLAs.
The reported incident took place just two days after Vishwas publicly contradicted the party’s stand on EVM.
On 28 April, the poet-politician had pointed to reasons beyond the party’s official stand to explain its recent poll defeats.
He had said, “There has been a communication gap between volunteers and the party leadership. We should first decide whom did we start our fight with. (Is it) corruption, the Congress, Narendra Modi or the EVMs?”
This came as a contradiction to the party’s official stand that questioned the authenticity of the EVMs blaming them for their electoral misfortunes in Punjab and the MCD polls.
Amanatullah Khan, AAP MLA from Okhla, had sensationally alleged that Vishwas was plotting a coup against Kejriwal, terming him a BJP agent.
This had led to a full-blown crisis in the party prompting Vishwas to allege that Khan was merely a “mask” behind the “coterie” hatching conspiracies against him.
“Had Amanatullah Khan said anything like this against Arvind or Manish, he would have been shown the door in 10 minutes,” Vishwas had said.
He had later hinted that he will quit the party.
Reacting to this, Deputy Chief Minister and senior AAP leader Sisodia had said Vishwas’ comments were only hurting the party and affecting morale.
Sisodia had said, “He doesn’t talk in the PAC. He should put forth his views in the PAC.”
Khan was later suspended from the party and Vishwas made in-charge of Rajasthan affairs. The decision, according to insiders, was to avert a major crisis in the party.
Just few days later, Khan was made the chairman of a panel of the Delhi Assembly. He was also appointed a member in seven newly constituted committees, including the Special Inquiry Committee, of the House by the Speaker.
As for Mishra, who was believed to be close to Vishwas, he was sacked by Kejriwal for non-performance. An angry Mishra had then gone public with his stunning allegation that Kejriwal accepted Rs 2 crore bribe from his health minister, Satyender Jain.