AAP left isolated as both NDA and Opposition ignore it

Delhi’s ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) finds itself without any suitors even as the NDA and 17-party Opposition aggressively court political friends and foes to seek support for their Presidential candidates ahead of the July 17 poll.

The AAP, with 8,922 votes might not be in a position to swing results in a contest that will involve 11 lakh votes, but it had been completely abandoned in the run up to poll that is projected as an ideological fight between the BJP and its rivals.

The RLD has only one MLA and 208 votes but its chief Ajit Singh’s presence at the Opposition’s meeting on Thursday was projected as a prize catch for NDA’s rivals. This presidential contest is all about symbolism, about who stands where, and the AAP appears to be nowhere.

“Which political party or leader the AAP hasn’t abused? It (isolation) serves them well,” a senior opposition leader quipped to HT. The CPI(M) had initially tried to rope in the AAP but the Congress and other parties shot down the idea. The AAP was not invited to the opposition parties’ meetings to discuss and finalise their Presidential nominee.

Left out and unwanted, the AAP is in no hurry to take a decision. “We have not decided yet. I am no one to decide, the party will take a decision,” party legislator and spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told Hindustan Times .

The AAP has remained equidistant from both the Congress and the BJP. The party has 86 MLAs in Delhi and Punjab and four members in the Lok Sabha. Its ally in Punjab, the Lok Insaaf Party, has two MLAs.

Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi said he will go by the party’s decision. “Although, there has been no communication between me and the party for the last two years,” he said.