AAP dreams of going national, again

Though the party has failed in the past, the Punjab win may change its fortunes

On Thursday afternoon, as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was leading in 91 of 117 seats in Punjab, from a stage atop the party headquarters in Delhi, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal described his party’s performance as a “revolution” that would “spread throughout the country”. At the core of his speech was his appeal to the ‘ aam aadmi’ (common man) to realise his powers and join the party to build a “new India”. 

“I want to tell everyone in the country, you should all realise your power, stand up, it is time to bring revolution in the country. We have wasted 75 years, now there is no time to waste. Everyone should join the AAP. AAP is not the name of a party, it is the name of a revolution. AAP is a name for fulfilling Bhagat Singh’s dreams,” Mr. Kejriwal said.

This is not the first time that the AAP is trying to go national. It has tried and failed repeatedly in realising this ambition in the past. However, both party leaders and observers feel that this moment is different given AAP’s “huge victory” in Punjab.

The AAP was born of the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement in 2012. In 2014, it contested over 400 seats in the general election, with Mr. Kejriwal taking on BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi. But the party could win only four seats — all of them in Punjab. Following this, there was a brief lull in its “national plans”.

In 2015, the AAP swept the Delhi Assembly election by winning 67 out of 70 seats. There was a renewed hope in the party. But within weeks, top leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Yadav were expelled from the AAP and this “ugly split” destroyed it, said political analyst Neerja Chowdhury. “This prevented them from growing outside Delhi,” she added.

Since then, the AAP has contested Assembly elections in several States, but outside the Capital it could open its account only in Punjab, in 2017 Assembly election, where it won 20 seats and became the main Opposition.

The party’s hopes were renewed when it won the Delhi Assembly election again in 2020, bagging 62 out of the 70 seats. The party started a campaign under which people across the country could join it. But this drive was marred by the pandemic that hit the country around the same time.