New Delhi, March 11: The Aam Aadmi Party appears to be imploding less than a mon

th since it came to office with a landslide victory, after a purported audio-tap

e leak today brought Arvind Kejriwal under a horse-trading cloud.
The tape of a purported conversation between Kejriwal and then party MLA Rajesh
Garg in November, in which the AAP chief is heard asking Garg to poach Congress
MLAs to form the government in Delhi, was aired on television channels today.
The party has not denied the tape's authenticity. Garg said the conversation was
genuine and that he had taped it, and had given the tape to party leader Kumar
Vishwas after he asked for it.
Vishwas could not be reached on the phone for his reaction. But in tweets tonigh
t, he called Garg a "failed conspirator" and said he had "forwarded the audio cl
ip to the party on the same day you tried to blackmail me with the same".
The leak had an immediate impact. Anjali Damania, a prominent AAP leader from Ma
harashtra, resigned from the party and tweeted: "I quit.. I have not come into A
AP for this nonsense. I believed him.. I backed Arvind for principles not Horsetrading."
The resignation left many stunned because just two days ago Damania had expresse
d solidarity with Kejriwal and slammed rebel leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant
Bhushan for conspiring to defeat the party in Delhi.
Damania
An open letter by Yadav and Bhushan to party volunteers, which was a point-by-po
int rebuttal of the "anti-party" charges levelled against them by Kejriwal loyal
ists, capped the day's events.
The developments came a day after Kejriwal loyalists set in motion the process t
o expel the two founding members. The Kejriwal faction today launched a signatur
e drive to remove Yadav and Bhushan from the party and more than 60 Delhi MLAs a
re learnt to have signed.
The tape leak was being seen as the duo's attempt to hit back.
"We are ready to form the government, but Congress is not ready to support us...
. Do one thing, split the Congress and ask their six MLAs to float a new party a
nd support us," Kejriwal is purportedly heard saying on the tape.
AAP spokesperson Ashish Khetan did not question the tape's authenticity but deni
ed charges of horse-trading. "Even if we assume the tape is authentic, where doe
s it suggest that monetary gains were offered by AAP in exchange of support?" he
asked.
Garg, who said he always had his phone on recording mode, said the conversation
with Kejriwal took place just before the Delhi Assembly was dissolved. "The reco
rding is completely authentic. I gave this recording to Kumar Vishwas only. I am
surprised how this recording has reached every TV channel," he said.
The former MLA from Rohini was denied a party ticket this time, raising the susp
icion that he had joined the anti-Kejriwal faction.
After the tape controversy erupted and Damania resigned, Yadav uploaded on his T
witter and Facebook accounts an open letter to party volunteers. The letter, fro
m him and Bhushan, alleged that after the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections Ke
jriwal had decided to seek Congress support a second time to form the government
in Delhi but that they had opposed it.

"Now we leave this decision to you, whether it was proper or not on our part to
oppose the decision? Would it be possible for us to win the faith of Delhiites a
gain had we taken Congress support and formed the government?" the letter asked,
clearly aiming to win the sympathy of volunteers.
The two leaders hope to garner enough support to split the party, if not in Delh
i, then in other states, sources said.
Kejriwal is in Bangalore, undergoing naturopathy treatment. A five-bedroom bunga
low in Civil Lines, north Delhi, with a lawn that can accommodate some 300 peopl
e is being readied for him and his family. Kejriwal is likely to move into it on
March 17.