NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party which won the Delhi Assembly election in 2015 with a landslide victory on a platform of clean, merit-based leadership is today fighting allegations of caste politics.
A series of resignations by party stalwarts has reinforced the notion that the party is a one-man show. But the recent revelations by former party functionary Ashutosh on how the party has started factoring caste into its electoral arithmetic has put the party on the backfoot.
Caste is a factor which cannot be ignored in Indian elections. And AAP’s lineup of candidates for the general elections next year shows that they have taken it into account. The party, which lost all the seven seats to BJP and Congress in 2014, recently announced in-charges for five of the seats. Atishi, from East Delhi, Pankaj Gupta from Chandini Chowk, Raghav Chadha for South Delhi, Dilip Pandey for North East Delhi and Ghuggan Singh for the reserved SC seat. Though the party is to formally name them as candidates, they have already started campaigning.
Pankaj Gupta, a member of AAP’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC), will contest Chandni Chowk, which has a large chunk of voters from the Baniya caste. Similarly, Raghav Chaddha, a Punjabi, has been given charge of South Delhi where Punjabi voters are influential, while Dilip Pandey from Bihar will contest North East Delhi, which has a sizeable number of Poorvanchali voters. The party is yet to decide on the two remaining seats of New Delhi and West Delhi. Ashish Khetan, who recently distanced himself from the party, had fought elections from the New Delhi seat.
The opposition has been quick to launch an attack. “The two episodes of Atishi Marlena and Ashutosh have exposed the AAP. I mean there is nothing wrong if someone is a Christian and he is fighting elections if that is the excuse AAP is giving. It would do well to the people if they keep this in mind,” said BJP leader Vijendra Gupta.