Negative campaign, poor strategy doomed AAP

NEW DELHI: The AAP, in its internal meeting, has admitted it ran a negative campaign in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections and gave undue focus on Varanasi at the cost of other constituencies.

Party’s top decision making body, the political affairs committee (PAC), which includes most of the senior leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Shazia Ilmi and Yogendra Yadav, in its first postresults review meeting held on Saturday, attributed the two reasons for its poll debacle.

Although the party won four seats in Punjab, it failed to win any seats in Delhi, where it swept to power in the assembly elections held last December.

In other states most of its candidate fared badly with a number of them losing their security deposits.

“The two points were raised by some PAC members and there was consensus that the party could have focused equally on a number of constituencies instead of focusing on Varanasi,” a senior par ty leader told HT on condition of anonymity.

The party has received flak

UNDUE FOCUS ON VARANASI AT THE COST OF OTHER SEATS WAS DISCUSSED AS A REASON FOR AAP’S POOR PERFORMANCE

from its own members for diverting all its resources to Varanasi from where its chief Arvind Kejriwal contested against PM designate Narendra Modi, leaving over 400 party candidates fending for themselves.

The party’s campaign strategy, which was largely negative with its leaders painting everyone black, was also discussed in the meeting. “Apart from calling names we should also have offered solutions,” the leader said.

The third point discussed in the PAC was the party’s decision to quit Delhi government within 49 days of coming to power in January this year, and its effect on the LS polls.

Although Kejriwal had earlier publicly admitted that the decision was not communicated well to the public, the PAC discussed it threadbare and there was unanimity that the party had erred and it did not go down with the people.