Senior AAP leader Kumar Vishwas said today he had volunteered to step down as the party’s overseas fundraiser, dispelling speculation that he was removed from the post.
Vishwas said he was still the AAP’s overseas convenor.
“I never tried to know about the funds and nor do I want to know. Other colleagues were looking after fund raising affairs. So, I requested the party leadership to relieve me of this responsibility so that I could focus more on Rajasthan,” he told reporters here on the sidelines of a meeting with party workers from the western state.
“The AAP’s national executive accepted my request and I thank it for that,” Vishwas said.
He was excused from the fund raising duty last week.
Suspended AAP leader Kapil Mishra claimed that Vishwas quit as he was unhappy over the lack of transparency in the party’s funding.
He quit because he was not kept in the loop as to from where did the money come or how was it spent. Most of the transactions were carried out in cash, Mishra said.
In a series of tweets, Mishra said, “My information says that Dr Kumar Vishwas was not removed but he has volunteered to step down from fund raising and overseas responsibilities. Neither was he being told about the source of fund nor did anyone tell him about expenses. Most of the expenses were in cash.
“No balance-sheet on expenses in Punjab polls and cash transactions without invoices were the reasons why Vishwas quit the (overseas fundraiser) posts.”
The AAP’s overseas fund raising is being looked after by its Karnataka convenor Prithvi Reddy, Preeti Sharma Menon and Dwarka MLA Adarsh Shastri since September 2016.
Vishwas was recently in the midst of a bitter internal feud involving an AAP MLA, Amanatullah Khan, who had accused him of being a BJP agent and wanting to take over the party’s leadership role.
(With PTI inputs)