IANS/New Delhi
A woman activist yesterday urged Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas to clarify his relationship with her, prompting both him and the party to dismiss charges of wrongdoing as “baseless”.
The AAP volunteer said she had approached the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) against Vishwas seeking his clarification.
“I want Kumar Vishwas to come forward and clarify that there was nothing between us. I have suffered a lot because of this entire matter,” the woman, her face partly covered, told reporters here.
“My family is not with me because of this issue. I have been living alone for the last one month. The AAP is also not supporting me,” she said. “I want my respect back.”
She did not make any criminal allegation against Vishwas.
The AAP, which rules Delhi, contested the charges.
“The issue has been played up as if Kumar Vishwas has illicit relations with the woman. The woman herself has named four people for maligning her image on social media,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh said.
“Spare our families... They get hurt by such baseless reports,” he said.
Vishwas called the whole thing a political conspiracy.
“The woman is like my younger sister... People have given their life for our movement. I am facing character assassination.”
He specifically blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“A rumour is being spread to malign me and the party. The BJP lost the elections badly in Delhi... In pain and frustration they are targeting AAP leaders,” he said.
The woman said she had taken party in Kumar Vishwas’ campaign in the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.
Vishwas had unsuccessfully contested against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the last general elections.
“Later I saw a post on social media in 2015 in which it was claimed that Kumar Vishwas’s wife had caught us in an objectionable position. When I confronted Kumar Vishwas he asked me not to pay attention to it, and not to make a big issue out of it,” she said.
She said she appealed to Vishwas to tell the media “that nothing had happened between us.”
The woman said he promised to do that, adding she was like “a younger sister to him... But later he stopped responding.”
She said she tried to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal but he did not respond.
Within minutes of the newsbreak yesterday afternoon, Twitter exploded with numerous photographs of Vishwas and AAP’s women supporters, posted by various users.
The hashtag - #exposingkumarvishwas - started trending on Twitter, with users divided in their opinions about the poet-turned-politician. The controversy was fuelled by senior party leader Anand Kumar’s statement that the party rift would reach the bedrooms and drawing rooms of the leaders.
A series of e-mails exchanged between the top leadership of the party, deciding the course of action - after they received a complaint against Vishwas - has come to light.
In December last year, senior party officials received an e-mail from a man - claiming to be one Ajay Vohra - accusing Vishwas of accepting black money and indulging in a physical relationship with a volunteer from Amethi. In the e-mails, it was also alleged that Vishwas’s wife also knew about it.
The DCW meanwhile said it had summoned Vishwas to hear his view.
“The volunteer had worked for a year in Amethi for the party and now it is a matter of her respect, and so Kumar Vishwas should turn up and give his clarification,” a DCW official said.
However, sources from Vishwas camp said he had not received the summons or a notice from the DCW or any other commission.
Vishwas: denies charges
