Ashutosh addressing mediapersons in Ahmedabad in 2016. (Express photo Javed Raja)
After four years in the Aam Aadmi Party, Ashutosh announced Wednesday that he was quitting the party for ‘very, very personal reasons’. He refused to divulge any other details about why he was leaving the party.
AAP party chief Arvind Kejriwal later responded with a tweet saying that there was no question of accepting Ashutosh’s resignation. Other party leaders also said that the journalist-turned-politician’s resignation hadn’t been accepted yet.
The announcement capped a very eventful journey in the party for the former journalist who joined just before the national polls in 2014, became the party’s spokesperson and was its most visible face for years offering comment on the biggest issues over the last four years.
Here are some highlights of his tenure as the party’s spokesperson:
Joins AAP, says he couldn’t stay silent anymore
In January 2014, just months before the national polls, journalist Ashutosh announced that he was going to join the recently formed Aam Aadmi Party. For months earlier, there was speculation that the former editor-in-chief of the erstwhile IBN 7 news channel was going to join the party.
“I felt that I couldn’t stay silent any more and so I decided to join the party,” he had said.
Questioned over clash outside BJP office in Delhi
Fourteen AAP members were arrested after clashes outside the BJP’s national headquarters in Delhi between supporters of the two parties that left 28 people injured.
Ashutosh was among the leaders present and was questioned by the Delhi Police after being named in the FIR.
Ashutosh (second from right) during the protest. (Express photo: Praveen Khanna)
Campaigns for Lok Sabha elections, loses in Delhi
He campaigned in various constituencies for the party ahead of the general elections. He was picked as the party’s candidate to contest the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi against Congress’s Kapil Sibal and BJP’s Harsh Vardhan. The party stuck with him despite protests over him being picked.
Ashutosh finished second and Harsh Vardhan went on to become a minister in the Narendra Modi government.
Releases a book revealing inner workings of party and its internal strife
In excerpts from his book released in March 2015, Ashutosh, who was made the party’s Delhi unit chief, said that even before the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party, the India Against Corruption movement had explored the possibility of contesting elections.
In his book titled The Crown Prince, The Gladiator and The Hope, the former journalist wrote also wrote about the ‘crisis’ in the party and how Kejriwal wanted to quit after the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. Just days after excerpts from the book were made public, the rift in the party was out in the open. A couple of weeks later Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav found themselves out of the party.
Breaks down on live television debate
During a television debate in April 2015, Ashutosh broke down on a live debate on a channel as he spoke about the death of Gajendra Singh, a farmer from Rajasthan who committed suicide in the middle of an AAP rally in Delhi. The debate also featured Singh’s daughter
Ashutosh was pleading that leaders must not play politics over the issue when he broke down and was mocked on social media for it.
Defends sacking of minister over objectionable CD, gets summons from women’s panel
After Delhi’s Minister for Women and Child Welfare, Sandeep Kumar, was sacked from the Cabinet over an ‘objectionable CD’, Ashutosh wrote a blog post explaining why the party had sacked the minister.
“A public figure probably cannot openly smoke, drink and flirt with the opposite sex, but he or she is entitled to his or her private space and he or she should not be chased there,” Ashutosh wrote in the blog, adding that the party is “deeply embarrassed”. Ashutosh also went on to compare Kumar’s case with famous Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Ram Manohar Lohia, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and George Fernandes for which he earned a lot of flak.
The AAP leader also questioned the intentions of some television news channels that aired the footage of the alleged sex tape. The blog post earned him a summons from the National Commission for Women.
A combative Ashutosh responded in a note which said, “If you want to hang me, hang me. But let me bring to your attention a far serious allegation.” The matter would return to haunt him in 2018 again, when a Delhi court ordered an FIR against Ashutosh for the column.
Joins Kejriwal in apologising to Arun Jaitley in defamation case
In December 2015, Ashutosh was among the AAP’s leaders who were named with Kejriwal in a defamation case filed against them by Arun Jaitley. Jaitley had filed the case after the AAP leaders levelled allegations of corruption against him.
In January 2018, Ashutosh was fined Rs 10,000 by a court for wasting its time by demanding that Jaitley’s statement in the case be recorded again in Hindi. In April, he joined Kejriwal in apologising to Jaitley and ending the case.