AAP, which is currently in power in Punjab, swept the rural local body polls, winning 70 per cent of the seats.
In Goa, the results of the zila panchayat election went heavily in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while the AAP saw a wipeout.
What’s the reason behind the party’s declining fortunes in the state? A clear divergence between the state and central leadership. In the runup to the recent elections, Amit Palekar, AAP Goa president, had argued that the party should enter into an alliance with Congress and others like the Goa Forward Party (GFP) to prevent a split in the anti-BJP votes.
“I told my party leadership that we cannot compete against the resources of a party like the BJP which is in power in both the centre and Goa. But there is anti-incumbency, there is unimaginable corruption and a huge governance deficit. We should capitalise on that together,” he told Business Standard from Panjim.
However, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had already spelt out the party line. At a public meeting in October, Kejriwal had thundered: “There will be no alliance with the Congress under any circumstances. It deceived the people of Goa the most. Between 2017 and 2019, 13 Congress MLAs joined the BJP, and then 10 more in 2022. Can they give us an assurance that none of their MLAs will join the BJP after winning? Congress supplies its MLAs to the BJP in wholesale.”
In the December elections, BJP won 31 of the 50 zila panchayat seats. Congress won 10, while the GFP and the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) got one each. Four seats were won by Independents. The AAP contested 41, winning one narrowly.
Palekar was told to step down shortly after. He resigned not just from his position but the primary membership of the party. AAP’s state general secretary (organisation), Shrikrishna Parab, was given additional charge as president of the Goa unit. He too quit soon after, along with two others. Within days, AAP’s top leadership in Goa was hollowed out.
Palekar had been projected as the party’s CM face in 2022. He said that his removal as state president was communicated to him through a phone call without discussion or analysis. “It was deeply humiliating and was emblematic of the party’s internal culture,” he said.
Palekar added: “If I was wrong (in proposing an alliance with like-minded opposition parties), my other colleagues should have stayed back in AAP. They didn’t. 90 per cent of the people and my own followers in St Cruz (his constituency) backed me”.
But those who argue that AAP must continue to eschew alliances point to the results of the Punjab rural body elections. In the zila parishad elections, its vote share was 38.16 per cent, while the Congress managed to secure 27.14 per cent and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) 22.52 per cent. In the panchayat samiti poll, AAP retained its lead by gaining a vote share of 37.66 per cent, while Congress got 27.74 per cent, SAD 20.33 per cent and BJP 6.41 per cent.
According to Palekar, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann is a “sensitive and receptive administrator, open to new policy interventions”. “I’ll give you an example: Some entrepreneurs in Punjab had a problem and I mentioned it to Mann ji, requesting him to send someone to sort it out. He met these people himself and their problems were resolved. His vision is as good as his sense of humour. But he needs a free hand,” he said.
In Punjab, the battle of wills between the Congress and the AAP shows no sign of abating. “They (AAP) see us being pitted against them — we are the principal opposition, so they are wary of giving us any quarter,” a Congress MP from Punjab explained on condition of anonymity. Although Assembly polls in Punjab are not due till 2027, AAP’s prickliness towards the Congress spilled over to the Chandigarh mayoral elections, which were held on January 29. Ahead of the polls, Jarnail Singh, AAP’s in-charge of Chandigarh, posted on X: “The BJP having the mayor’s chair in Chandigarh and the Congress holding the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor is strong proof of an alliance... The country has now understood this sham fight of yours.”
The results were the same in Goa, where AAP lost the positions of both mayor and deputy mayor to BJP, due to the absence of an alliance with Congress.
Other parties, including the Congress, are watching AAP warily — it is clear that if the party becomes a factor in local elections, it could become an existential threat unless coopted. AAP continues to be resistant to this idea, but if it is to be politically sustainable, it has no option but to be flexible, as the Goa and Chandigarh polls have shown.
 "Aam Aadmi Party office")