Delhi won, AAP sets its sights on Punjab

Ten months after sweeping the Delhi Assembly polls, Arvind Kejriwal has established his party as a force to reckon with at the national level. His next goal: Punjab, where the party has four MPs. But all is not well in the party's state unit

In February this year, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the Delhi Assembly elections decimating both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, it was believed to be a Delhi-centric phenomenon with little prospect of being replicated elsewhere.

Ten months later, with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ensconced in the Opposition ranks on the national scene, his party has set its sights on Punjab, where Assembly polls are due in 2017. It helps that the party already has four Lok Sabha MPs from the state.

While many are surprised at the high-decibel theatrics of the ongoing political drama in Delhi, what with Kejriwal lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and targeting his most important Cabinet minister, Arun Jaitley, political observers say this could be useful for the AAP as a build-up to the Punjab polls.
 

At the AAP's national council meeting in Delhi last month, Kejriwal told his party colleagues to focus on the Punjab elections. An organisational strategist of the party affirms, "For the next one and a half years, we will not be contesting elections anywhere else; we'll focus only on Punjab."

For the AAP, Punjab presents a "Delhi-like opportunity", the strategist explains. "People in the state have tried out both parties - the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress," he says. "They are thoroughly disillusioned and are clamouring for a change." Anti-incumbency is high for the Parkash Singh Badal government and the Congress is still a divided house - in other words, fertile ground for the AAP, given its anti-corruption stance.

The AAP's most popular face in Punjab, Bhagwant Mann - many see him as the party's chief ministerial candidate - recently said the party would repeat its Delhi performance in Punjab. AAP's Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh denied all talk of an alliance in the 2017 elections, saying the AAP "will contest all 117 seats".

A glance at the AAP's organisational numbers in Punjab in the past six months indicates its growing footprint: 2.6 million members, 1,400 circle in-charges, 39 sector in-charges and five party workers assigned to each of the 23,000 polling booths.

Incidentally, the party is using the same matrix that reaped rich dividends for it in Delhi. By breaking down the Assembly segments into small units - zone, sector, circle and booth - the party hopes to reach out to the grassroots and bolster its cadre by training and educating every booth worker.

The AAP is also gearing up for direct public interaction with door-to-door campaigns and big rallies, again taking cue from its Delhi victory. A massive public rally is slated for January that would be led by Kejriwal himself.

It's no coincidence then that Kejriwal has been projecting himself as an adversary to Modi. Party insiders say the AAP wants to capitalise on the current Delhi political storm to gain inroads into Punjab. It wants to project Kejriwal as a victim - an honest chief minister who was not allowed to work by a power-hungry Centre intent on protecting its corrupt ministers. Kejriwal's histrionics in front of Manish Sisodia's house after the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the chief minister's office could find sympathy among the Punjab electorate. That Jaitley contested from Amritsar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and lost is another factor that could work in the AAP's favour.

With the Badals (Parkash Singh and his son and deputy chief minister Sukhbir) and Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh allegedly linked to corruption cases, this helps project the AAP as a credible alternative in the state. The party is also expected to highlight its track record in the Delhi government to strengthen its electoral chances in Punjab.

While Kejriwal is likely to hand over the bulk of his responsibilities in Delhi to Sisodia to focus on Punjab, he has dismissed reports that he would name Sisodia the CM. By mid-2016, Kejriwal is expected to make frequent trips to Punjab, yet indications are that the party's CM candidate would be someone from the state.

Despite the AAP's growing popularity in Punjab, fissures have developed in the party's state unit. Two of its four Lok Sabha MPs - Dharamvir Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa - have been suspended by the party although they continue to represent it in Parliament. Gandhi has been vocal about his angst, indicating that he would not play any role in the AAP's Assembly poll preparations. "The party's sole aim today is to grab power," he says. "We have a high command culture and have compromised our founding principles of changing the politics in the country." He alleges that the party is drafting in people with dubious credentials from other parties in Punjab, in an attempt to win the Assembly polls.

Yet if the AAP's bid for power in Punjab pays off, Kejriwal would be no less a force to reckon with than West Bengal and Bihar chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar, respectively.