AAP PLANS A STRATEGIC SHIFT

AAP’s National Executive is meant to be an exhibition of strength by the supporters of Kejriwal.

Reeling under the impact of its loss in the Delhi municipal elections and reverses in Goa and Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in a strategic shift, has decided to consolidate its base in the national capital and in Punjab. The general view is that the party should refrain from expending its energy and resources in contesting elections in other states. However, the AAP could field its nominees in Gujarat, where the polls are due at the end of the year, in order to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in its bastion. A decision to this effect may be taken at the meeting of AAP’s National Executive on Sunday.

The conclave is also meant to be an explicit exhibition of strength by the supporters of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been accused of financial and administrative irregularities by his erstwhile colleague Kapil Mishra, along with a handful of his followers. Kejriwal enjoys an overwhelming support in the party he had set up in the wake of the Anna Hazare movement against rampant corruption some years ago. He was re-elected as its convener last year and enjoys the unflinching backing of the National Executive, which is a 26-member body and includes his deputy Manish Sisodia, besides Meera Sanyal, Kumar Vishwas, Ashish Talwar, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha, Gopal Rai, Ashutosh, Atishi Marlena and Bhagwant Mann, amongst others.

There is an increasing recognition in the party that its experimentation in Goa dur- ing the Assembly elections was as futile as its efforts to make it to the national platform in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, when Kejriwal had pitted himself against Narendra Modi in Varanasi. This was in addition to his fielding candidates in various parts of the country. However, the party is content with its performance in Punjab where it is the primary opposition to the Congress and has seven more seats than the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine. Though the AAP was at one stage seen as the party expected to unseat the Akalis, yet it ended up securing 20 odd seats in the 117-member Assembly.

Initially, the party’s detractors described the Punjab outcome as a colossal setback. Nevertheless, the cadres have come to terms with the result, and believe that it is the beginning of the organisation’s growth since the two-and-a-half-month Congress government is already trying to address a mining scam, which seems to have tarnished its image. A key AAP functionary stated, “Things are changing very fast. Who would have thought that a senior leader like Parkash Singh Badal would be a member of the Assembly without being either the Chief Minister or even the Leader of Opposition? In the current Assembly, he is neither.”

Sources said that the dismal results in the Delhi civic elections have been a wakeup call for Kejriwal, who at one time was openly toying with the idea of going to a state like Punjab if his party had secured a majority. The reality principle is apparently at work and the senior