JOIN USAAP seeks to spread its ‘broom’ in states as Assembly polls near
Fifty-one days before the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Arvind Kejriwal walked into the house of a labourer in Delhi's Tigri Colony on October 6, 2012, to restore the snapped electricity connection over non-payment of bills running into Rs 15,000. That was the launch of his 'bijli-pani' protest against "inflated" bills and hiked tariffs, a fortnight after parting ways with Anna Hazare.
As the Delhi Chief Minister now ventures out of Delhi once again to grow his party's electoral footprint in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab where Assembly elections will be held early next year, he knows one of the roads to power is 'power bills'.
Visiting Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand in the last month, he has promised 300 units of free electricity if AAP is voted to power. Kejriwal has taken a leaf out of the playbook from the Delhi polls promising free water and electricity.
AAP does not want to repeat the 2014 mistake when it attempted to spread its wings without the necessary groundwork. It was decimated in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when it thought it could create an impact nationally. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it restricted its big fights to Delhi and Punjab basically.
"We learnt our lessons. We are more focused now. The political situation also suits us now," a senior AAP leader said. That is exactly why there is a focused attempt.
Kejriwal has visited Punjab twice while he travelled to Uttarakhand and Goa once. He visited Gujarat where AAP made impressive gains in local body polls, upsetting Congress. In all the poll-bound states, AAP sees a chance to usurp some space the Congress is perceived to be leaving.
"Congress is on the decline. There is space and people look at AAP as an alternative,” the leader said.
AAP has also learnt from past mistakes. The first thing Kejriwal did during his June 21 visit to Amritsar, the first to Punjab with an eye on the election, was to declare that AAP would declare a Sikh as its Chief Ministerial candidate. In 2017, AAP had given an impression that Kejriwal will move to Punjab, depriving a Sikh of the hotseat in the Sikh-dominated state. He visited the state again on June 29 to Chandigarh where he made the second definite poll pitch—the promise of free power up to 300 units.
AAP is hopeful this time in Punjab after it lost momentum last time following Congress' Amarinder Singh managed to highlight his opponent's support to certain sections as a threat to peace and stability in the state. From a vantage position, AAP is said to have slumped but emerged second pushing the then-dominant Akali Dal to third.
However, in 2019 polls, it had a lacklustre performance as it could retain only one out of four MPs from the state. Now, the discord in ruling Congress where Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his bete noire Navjot Singh Sidhu are at loggerheads is good news to the AAP. It hopes that the BJP and the newly minted Akali Dal-BSP coalition also could dent the Congress.
Political analysts believe AAP has better prospects in Punjab while it may not be a huge gainer in Goa, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. However, Kejriwal is leaving no stones unturned. He visited Goa on July 13 where he held a series of meetings with party leaders.
The visit triggered a buzz about the emergence of a possible coalition after Kejriwal met Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) chief Sudin Dhavalikar and his brother Deepak Dhavalikar at a hotel.
AAP is not leaving Uttar Pradesh too. Its in-charge and Rajya Sabha floor leader Sanjay Singh is working overtime in the state. He has recently raked up "questionable" land deals involving the Ram Temple Trust. Earlier, Singh was slapped with a case of sedition after he questioned the Covid-19 handling by the Yogi Adityanath government.
AAP leaders are not unrealistic this time. While AAP will contest all seats in both Punjab and Uttarakhand, it is to be seen whether it would enter into alliances in Uttar Pradesh or contest all seats or a limited number. They have set reasonable targets and are eager to cash in on the gains that come their way. Any forward movement in states like Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Goa would be an add-on to its efforts to increase its political footprint nationally.