The AAP crisis deepened further on Saturday with its leader Kumar Vishwas hitting out at its "palace politics", even as posters came up outside its headquarters dubbing him a "friend of the BJP" and a "traitor".
The party has approached the Delhi Police urging it to act against those who pasted the posters and claimed the entire episode was an attempt to create a rift within the organisation.
On Saturday, posters terming Vishwas as a "friend of the BJP" and a "betrayer" who should be "thrown out" of the party came up outside the Aam Aadmp Party headquarters in central Delhi.
"A friend of the BJP, he is not a poet but a traitor. He attacks while in hiding and backstabs. Remove such a traitor," read the posters, which also "thanked" former AAP Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey for "exposing" Vishwas.
Pandey had recently accused Vishwas of being "silent" on the "transgressions" of the BJP.
However, the party distanced itself from the posters. "Few people pasted objectionable posters outside the party office. Insulting words have been used against Vishwas and Dilip Pandey's name has been used with a wrong intention. Images of top leaders have been used without their permission. This clearly indicates attempts to create a rift within the party," Bipul De, AAP's office in-charge, said in the complaint.
Meanwhile, Vishwas – who was recently appointed the party's Rajasthan affairs in-charge – reiterated that he would ensure the workers under him adhered to the party's "core principles" and went back to its "basics", suggesting that it has gone astray.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of a farmers' convention organised by the party at the Constitution Club here, where the body language of the leaders was reflective of the internal dissidence.
"We (AAP) did not come into being for these conspiracies and palace politics hatched by five-six people. We are for the causes based on which the party was born at the Ramlila Maidan. The party will fight the Rajasthan polls on its real principles," Vishwas told reporters.