AAP hits 'reboot' after poll loss: Saurabh Bharadwaj named Delhi chief, Sisodia to head Punjab unit in major shake-up

With elections slated next year in Punjab, AAP has chosen its most senior to steer the organisation in the state where Congress is going full hog to target the Bhagwant Mann-led government.

New Delhi: A month-and-half after its electoral debacle in Delhi, AAP on Friday pressed the 'reboot' button by choosing party chief Arvind Kejriwal's close associates Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Pankaj Gupta, Sandeep Pathak, Gopal Rai and Saurabh Bharadwaj for key assignments that could see a fresh round of confrontation with Congress.

Sisodia has been made in-charge of Punjab while Jain will be a co-incharge while Gopal Rai, who was heading its Delhi unit, has been made in-charge of Gujarat with Durgesh Pathak assisting him. Gupta has been made in-charge of Goa while Bhardwaj will head Delhi unit in place of Rai.

Pathak, who is General Secretary (Organisation), will also look after Chhattisgarh while sitting MLA Mehraj Malik has been appointed president of Jammu and Kashmir. Ankush Narang, Abhash Chandela and Deepak Singhla were appointed co-incharges in Goa, assisting Gupta. 

The decisions on appointments were made at a meeting of AAP's highest decision making body Political Affairs Committee chaired by Kejriwal here. The appointments indicated that the AAP wants to reopen the fight against the Congress for Opposition space in Gujarat, Goa and Chhattisgarh besides giving enhanced focus on the party affairs in Punjab and Delhi.

With elections slated next year in Punjab, AAP has chosen its most senior and experienced leaders Sisodia and Jain, who lost their seats in Delhi Assembly elections last month, to steer the organisation in the state where Congress is going full hog to target the Bhagwant Mann-led government.

Retaining Punjab is a do-or-die battle for AAP as it is the only place where it is in power and a defeat in the state would harshly impact its future prospects. Also, their seniority would also help them in controlling Mann.

The immediate task for Sisodia and Jain would be to ensure AAP victory in Ludhiana (West) bypoll where candidacy of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora has been announced. If Arora wins, the Rajya Sabha seat would become vacant and there is a possibility that Kejriwal would enter Parliament through the Punjab route, though the party has denied any such possibility.

In Delhi, AAP has chosen a young-Brahmin face for the task of revitalising the organisation. The task is cut out for Bhardwaj, who had lost his Greater Kailash seat, to ensure that the party regroups. He told reporters that it would not be a difficult task, as AAP still has 43.57% votes and the difference with BJP is around 2% points only.

Rai, who was also in contention for the post of Leader of Opposition that eventually went to Atishi, will be heading to Gujarat where AAP has found some space. This would put the party in direct fight with Congress for the opposition space where it has been cooperating for the past some time. 

Similarly, Goa is another state where AAP has sent one of its senior leaders, Gupta, as its in-charge with a mandate of regaining space it had conceded to allies. In the Assembly elections, AAP had an impressive debut but it left the Lok Sabha battle to Congress.

In Chhattisgarh too, the Kejriwal-led party would be on an expedition to enhance its presence with Pathak tasked to improve on AAP’s performance in the civic body elections.