The inner turmoil in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continues to simmer with another senior AAP leader, Aatishi Marlena, blaming Prashant Bhushan for backing out of truce-talks with the Arvind Kejriwal camp last month under pressure from his father, Shanti Bhushan, even as Bhushan junior rubbished her charge.

Marlena, the face of AAP in television channels as a former spokesperson, was considered close to the rebel camp led by Yogendra Yadav and Bhushan Junior. In her letter to the duo, she is said to have admitted to the “shortcomings” in AAP’s organisational structure and said she agreed with some issues raised by them, but was not in favour of their “style of bringing the organisation to the point of crisis, for addressing these questions”.

Reacting to Marlena’s letter, which was flashed in the media, Bhushan Junior denied having backed out of the reconciliatory talks with the Kejriwal camp on his father’s insistence, saying the negotiations fell through because of “trust deficit“.

In her letter, Marlena is said to have written that both the camps were close to aconsensus “that promised a collective apology from the leadership of the party, time-bound institutional changes…and 6 new, neutral and credible members in the National Executive.’

Incidentally, Marlena, was also removed as AAP spokesperson along with several others, including Yadav, after internal differences took an ugly turn after the party’s national council meeting last month leading to the ouster of Yadav and Bhushan from the National Executive and Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the National Council.

Bhushan said he and Yadav had already sent their responses to Marlena, who he claimed was “not aware” about the details of the deliberations with the Kejriwal camp, led by Sanjay Singh.

Meanwhile, Bhushan and Yadav are preparing for a meeting of volunteers and supporters that they have convened on April 14 to chalk out their future course of action.

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