Post Bawana bypoll, AAP regains lost ground

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seems to have got its mojo back, geared up by the recent electoral victory that has given it new momentum.

From its legislators staging a sit-in outside the Delhi lieutenant governor’s (L-G) office to the party recently announcing it would contest the Gujarat polls, the Bawana bypoll victory appears to have revived the party.

The AAP, which was maintaining a low profile after a series of defeats, has recovered its voice and sharpened its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government after winning the bypoll on August 28 by more than 24,000 votes.

In the recent past, it has taken on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP over demonetisation, the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh and a range of other issues. The party recently also said it would contest the Gujarat Assembly polls, a decision it had put in cold storage after AAP’s poor show in the Punjab and Goa polls, and subsequently in the MCD local elections.

The party’s plan originally was to catapult to the national scene by 2017.

On August 30, 45 AAP

The party recently said it would contest Gujarat Assembly polls, a decision it had put in cold storage after AAP’s poor show in the Punjab and Goa elections

MLAs parked themselves at the Raj Niwas for over six hours, demanding that L-G Anil Baijal clear the mohalla clinic file — for neighbourhood health centres — immediately. The mohalla clinic project is a flagship project of the Delhi government. Mr Baijal cleared the file in less than a week.

“The Bawana win has infused a lot of positivity among our workers,” AAP leader Ashutosh said. Till the party was besieged by problems, the AAP was seldom out of the news with regular news conferences by the party top brass, tweets by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal attacking the BJP and Modi and boisterous verbal assaults by the CM reflecting the party’s aggressive strategy.

Electoral defeats were just one side of the story, as the party also came under attack from its own members.

Sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra and AAP’s founder member Kumar Vishwas, a popular face among the cadre, took the leaders on, openly questioning the top brass over the defeats.

Volunteers who earlier used to flock to the party office at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg also started thinning down.

But the Bawana by-poll victory seems to have given the party the thrust it sorely needed. It was an acid test. Our attempt was not to fall in the BJP Congress rhetoric, but publicise the work done by the Delhi government. And this transalated into victory for us,” Deepak Bajpai, party in-charge for the Bawana bypoll, said.