Ashutosh quits AAP, but Kejriwal refuses to accept resignation

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a setback on Wednesday with senior leader Ashutosh announcing his resignation from the party.

“Every journey has an end. My association with AAP, which was beautiful/revolutionary has also an end. I have resigned from the party/requested PAC to accept the same. It is purely from a very very personal reason.Thanks to party/all of them who supported me Throughout. Thanks,” Ashutosh said on Twitter.

However, AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has refused to accept Ashutosh’s resignation. “How can we ever accept your resignation?” Kejriwal asked on Twitter. He added that it was not possible in this lifetime.

The AAP leader’s resignation comes at a time when the party is already facing an internal tussle in other states. Earlier this month, dissident members of the Punjab unit held a volunteers’ convention that sought to dissolve the party structure in the state and declare the unit autonomous.

Senior leaders of the party, including Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh and Delhi cabinet minister Gopal Rai, are reaching out to Ashutosh to make him reconsider his decision.

Party leaders feel there has been tension between Ashutosh and the organization’s leadership since election to the three Rajya Sabha seats took place earlier this year. Ashutosh had also faced criticism after he gave the sit-in staged by Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues in the lieutenant governor’s office a miss.

Ashutosh, a journalist-turned-politician, has been associated with the party since its formation and was a member of the political affairs committee, which is the highest-decision making body. Ashutosh is an official spokesperson of the party and has also contested general elections from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat in New Delhi in 2014.

AAP has faced internal organizational tussles in the past as well. After the Delhi assembly elections in 2015, senior leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were expelled from AAP for “anti-party” activities. Last year, founding member Kumar Vishwas had also hinted that he may resign from the party.