Aam Aadmi Patry (AAP) rebels Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan announced that they were starting a new ‘movement’, while slamming the lack of scope for dialogue within Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.

Stopping short of announcing a new political party, Yadav said they would ‘not’ quit AAP because the party does not belong to a ‘single’ person.

Speaking at the Swaraj Samwad convention in Gurgaon, Prashant Bhushan said,

A movement will be launched based on dialogue, through swaraj,  on issues issues like challenges being faced by the farmers and development models in the country. The day we manage to show that our movement has stayed true to its ideals, we can make it a political party. I have heard that we (referring to Yadav) may be expelled from AAP for organising this samwad.
— Prashant Bhushan, AAP Leader and Senior Lawyer

Bhushan also sought to take on AAP’s top leadership for ‘threatening’ to expel those attending the samwad and said that it meant that ‘there is no place for dialogue in the party.’

Both Bhushan and Yadav steered clear of the question of the launch of a new party even as they stressed on the importance of a ‘new start’.

On the other hand, AAP leader Ashutosh hinted that a crackdown on the rebel members was imminent. He said that the party will ‘soon’ sit down to discuss latest developments in light of the samwad and take an ‘appropriate’ decision.

The entire exercise that happened today and the speeches of different people present on the dais, it’s very clear that they have already decided that they will break the party.
— Ashutosh, AAP Leader

Admiral L Ramdas, who was recently removed from the post of AAP’s internal Lokpal, spoke at the meet through an audio message. He said a samwad cannot be seen as being an ‘anti-party activity’.

We have all failed to live up to those promises (founding principles) of AAP and allowed ourselves to fall prey to undemocratic behaviour. I do not think the concept of Swaraj ever envisaged the kind of actions, abuse and strong-arm tactics which many have witnessed in the recent events connected with our National Executive and National Council meetings.
— Admiral L Ramdas, ex-AAP Lokpal

Anand Kumar, Ajit Jha, incumbent and former Timarpur MLAs, Pankaj Pushkar and Harish Khanna were also seen at the meet.