--- title: India's Anticorruption 'Common Man' Party Expels Senior Leaders description: Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had spoken out against party head Arvind Kejriwal canonical: https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-21T08:57:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:32:24.274Z article:section: World og:title: India's AAP Expels Senior Leaders og:description: The anticorruption party has been experiencing internal discord. og:url: https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19b35ff50d12a3f/6987ebfee20a87376ba88f97/469805080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 469805080 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: India's AAP Expels Senior Leaders twitter:description: The anticorruption party has been experiencing internal discord. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19b35ff50d12a3f/6987ebfee20a87376ba88f97/469805080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # India's Anticorruption 'Common Man' Party Expels Senior Leaders by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Apr 21, 2015 8:57 AM CUT  Dissident AAP leaders, from left, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Yogendra Yadav addressing a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on April 15, 2015 Dissident AAP leaders, from left, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Yogendra Yadav addressing a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on April 15, 2015Ajay Aggarwal—Hindustan Times/Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Apr 21, 2015 8:57 AM CUT India’s perennially tumultuous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) found itself embroiled in controversy yet again this week, expelling four members including two co-founders late Monday night. The populist anticorruption party said in a statement that founding members Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had been ejected for “gross indiscipline and antiparty activities,” the BBC reported. Two other senior politicians, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha, were also banned. The AAP, created on the back of a path-breaking national movement against graft in government, has swung between dramatic highs and unfortunate lows ever since its inception. Its leader Arvind Kejriwal resigned as New Delhi’s chief minister in February 2014 after just 49 days at the helm, staging a bizarre [sit-in](http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/arvind-kejriwal-calls-off-sit-in-that-gridlocked-delhi-shocked-centre-548482 "undefined") in the process, but [roared back into power](http://time.com/3702622/india-narendra-modi-delhi-elections/ "undefined") a year later after a near-whitewash of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. The internal discord that culminated in Bhushan and Yadav’s expulsion [began soon after](http://time.com/3728006/india-aap-aam-aadmi-party-prashant-bhushan-arvind-kejriwal/ "undefined") the February elections; both leaders were systematically removed from various decisionmaking bodies over the past few months after speaking out against Kejriwal’s reported authoritarian tendencies. “All dreams of a movement have been shattered by a small coterie and a dictator,” Bhushan, a lawyer by profession, [told](http://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/prashant-bhushan-on-expulsion-from-aam-aadmi-party-highlights-756770 "undefined") news channel NDTV. He added that he didn’t feel a sense of personal loss, but expressed deep regret. “How would you feel if someone drags you and throws you out of your own house?” Yadav asked reporters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/"},"headline":"India's Anticorruption 'Common Man' Party Expels Senior Leaders","datePublished":"2015-04-21T08:57:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:32:24.274Z","description":"Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav had spoken out against party chief Arvind Kejriwal","url":"https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/","keywords":["politics","India"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19b35ff50d12a3f/6987ebfee20a87376ba88f97/469805080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb19b35ff50d12a3f/6987ebfee20a87376ba88f97/469805080.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"469805080","caption":"Dissident AAP leaders, from left, Prashant Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Yogendra Yadav addressing a press conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on April 15, 2015","creditText":"Ajay Aggarwal—Hindustan Times/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3829301/india-aam-admi-party-prashant-bhushan-yogendra-yadav-expelled/","name":"India's Anticorruption 'Common Man' Party Expels Senior Leaders"}}]}] ```