New Delhi: When renowned psephologist and political scientist Professor Yogendra Yadav decided to join Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), both his admirers and friends were shocked. Nobody thought or expected that soft spoken, very affable scholar Yogendra Yadav would actually join active politics. Some of his friends advised him not to be so foolish. They warned him that vicious politics is not for a simple man like him. They even suggested that he should continue as a star panelist on TV news channels analysing political trends.
To their worries and apprehensions, Yogendra Yadav replied that he would love to be a failure in politics, rather than a big success in TV studios. How prophetic! The goings on in the AAP, which he co-founded under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal in the winter of 2012 prove that the AAP 'politics' has failed Yadav in just two years.
Yogendra Yadav, who is considered one of the best and saner political analysts of India has been a keen watcher of politics and certainly was aware of its pitfalls. Yadav, a distinguished professor at the famous Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in Delhi is a self declared socialist. The right-wing accuses him of backing the Congress and the Communists. Yadav dismisses such allegations with a broad smile on his face.
When Anna Hazare started his Lok Pal agitation in Delhi, Yadav also joined him and was seen prominently next to him at the famous Ram Lila maidan rally. However, he sided with Arvind Kejriwal when he defied Hazare to launch his own political party AAP.
Yadav who is a star in the intellectual circles of Delhi and outside changed the perception of this class about Kejriwal and became AAP's most powerful and convincing spokesperson on TV within no time. Yadav and Kejriwal together 'exposed' many alleged scams. Yadav always vociferously defended the AAP and his comrade in arms Kejriwal on all occasions.
When the AAP swept Delhi assembly elections in February 2015, it was Yadav who elucidated its agenda and future plans to the media and public. He got a rock star welcome at Arvind Kejriwal's swearing in ceremony at Ram Lila maidan on February 14.
Till that day, Kejriwal and Yadav combination was looking unbreakable. Within two weeks of Kejriwal taking charge as Delhi chief minister for the second time in a year, Yadav-Kejriwal differences became public causing a huge embarrassment for the party. After that, it was a freefall.
Some AAP insiders admit that Yadav is also very ambitious like Kejriwal and he is unlikely to make his expulsion easy for Kejriwal camp, which runs party with an iron grip. According to them, Kejriwal was using Yadav as the prime intellectual face and voice of the AAP and was not ready to cede his political space to him.
A former AAP leader Surajit Dasgupta writes that Yadav and Bhushans story of subterfuge is long. While one of them was initially admired within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for disarming other panelists on television talk shows with a modulated intonation of voice, the other was hailed for his public interest litigations (PILs) against perceived corrupt people. But neither Yogendra Yadav nor Prashant Bhushan is popular in the party, not at least in the national council.
Some even describe Yadav as a soft spoken, wily politician, who hides his big ambitions behind the veneer of his scholarship and intellectual powers. According to them Kejriwal and his team have been not comfortable with the growing demands, assertions and ambitions of Yadav and Bhushans for a longtime.
After Thursday night's 'shock' treatment at the AAP meeting, visibly shaken Yadav said "what happens in parties like Congress and BJP is now happening in AAP. I never expected this. It is really shocking". These words summed up his frustration over how he is being portrayed and humiliated in the AAP, which he co-founded and was planning to make it an all India alternative for the Congress and BJP.
Is Yogendra Yadav a failure in politics? Will he go back to TV studios to analyse politics to the common viewers and become a big success once again? Will he stay back in politics as a rebel voice? Only the time will tell.
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