AAP falters in Yogendra Yadav's Haryana

GURGAON: The Aam Admi Party's foray into Gurgaon, Rewari and Faridabad has been marred by protests, inner party dissentions and a less than anticipated public response.
The roadshow of AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav failed to draw in crowds and raised a question over the new party's appeal in an area that it has regarded as its growth zone. There were black flags on a couple of occasions and the rural response has been disappointing.
Even in interactions in Gurgaon's residential apartment complexes, AAP leaders have faced insistent questions over the party's record in office in Delhi and reasons for its abandoning the government in less than two months.
The rally in Gurgaon on Sunday saw a section of workers quit in pubic view. Yadav has since said the group was working at the behest of AAP's political rivals, but agreed that a leading light of the revolt, Ramesh yadav, has been with the new outfit almost since its inception.
Yadav disagreed that AAP was getting a tepid response. “The reception we got in Punhana, Nagina and Nuh in Mewat as well as in Rewari and Gurgaon and other places has been phenomenal. On Saturday in Mewat, despite being so late at night, the crowd was surging, waiting to hear what Arvind had to say.”
But while the response in parts of Mewat could have encouraged AAP, the reaction to the campaign in other areas did not meet expectations.
While AAP seemed to be keen in foraying into the rural belt in places like Mewat and Bawal, where it felt the electorate was not much aware of the party, the recent turn of events seems to have come as a rude jolt. The decision of the entire district level committee resigning alleging that AAP had strayed from its objectives is a setback.
Even in the rural areas where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and Yadav took out a road show the response was marred with people showing black flags at many places. While the duo dismissed these incidents as paid BJP workers, sources say that the turnout at these events was much less than what the party anticipated.
S C Talwar, who was the party convenor, said “On March 20 Yogendra Yadav accompanied by Pankaj Gupta who is the national secretary of AAP visited my house late at night as they wanted to clarify issues which were being raised. Already there was talk of conflict within the party because it has become a one man show. Despite being an office bearer I could not establish contact with Yogendra. He is just not accessible. The meeting which was attended by all district committee members ended without a resolution and that is when we decided to resign."