Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan announce new political party Swaraj India
The Swaraj Abhiyan founders said they had never been 'secretive about going political'.
The Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj Abhiyan announced Swaraj India, a new political party, on Sunday, PTI reported. In July, Yadav had said the outfit would form the party to provide an “alternative political vehicle” in the country.
“We were never secretive about going political,” Yadav had said after the concluding session of the Swaraj Abhiyan’s national convention on July 31, according to PTI. Ninety-three percent of the delegates present at that meeting had supported the formation of a new organisation. However, Yadav had clarified that Swaraj Abhiyan would continue to exist after the formation of the new outfit, with the two functioning independently of one another.
Both Bhushan and Yadav were expelled from the Aam Aadmi Party in April, 2015, for “anti-party activities”. The decision to expel them was taken at a meeting held between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders of the party. Yadav and Bhushan were also expelled from the party’s top decision-making bodies in March after being accused of working to undermine the party during the Delhi Assembly elections in February that year.