Meteoric rise of Aam Aadmi party in 10 yrs
From an outlier that bloomed in Delhi’s moral and political vacuum on an anti-corruption platform a decade ago, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is dramatically expanding its pan-India footprint. It now has bragging rights to be recognised as a national party. The AAP needed a minimum of 6% vote share in at least four states to get the recognition. Apart from Delhi and Punjab, where it is the ruling party, the AAP’s vote share in Goa was 6.77%. Gujarat became the icing on the cake, securing 13% of the total votes polled and enough seats to make the cut. AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal knew that capturing Gujarat would be impossible in the current round of elections since it had a negligible presence in the state except for a few urban pockets. Yet, he mounted a high-voltage campaign to cross the national party threshold and get rooted.
With the Congress sleep-walking into the elections, engaging in what it claimed was a silent campaign—that wasn’t audible even to Gujarat voters—the AAP preened itself on being the BJP’s prime adversary. This lapse is on new Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who apparently appeared more interested in demolishing his challenger Shashi Tharoor than in quickly cranking up the election machine and at least putting up a decent fight. The Congress victory in Himachal Pradesh came not because of, but despite, the high command. The AAP relaxed its Himachal push after its state in-charge and Delhi minister Satyendar Jain was arrested in a corruption case. Had he been free, the AAP could have taken away a sizeable chunk of the opposition votes in Himachal, perhaps helping the BJP. Some food for thought for the saffron party.
The AAP’s ascendance would be worrying not just for the Congress but also for the BJP. Both parties are rumoured to have done an underhand deal in Punjab in 2017 to keep the AAP out of power. In the recent MCD polls, for the first time, it trounced the ruling BJP. The AAP is growing at the expense of the Congress. But once in power, it is not easy to dislodge. It has a committed cadre that may not succumb to, say, an Operation Lotus. Reason enough for the BJP to be wary of its meteoric rise. The Congress must learn to do business with Kejriwal and accommodate the AAP in the national Opposition coalition that will be cobbled together if it aspires to pose a serious challenge to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.