Amid waning clout of Chautalas, AAP eyeing podium finish in Haryana with a promise of badlav

AAP intensifies campaign in Haryana ahead of Vidhan Sabha poll, focusing on Kejriwal's leadership and key guarantees.

With the Vidhan Sabha poll in Haryana just around the corner, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is looking to cash in on a political vacuum in the agrarian State with the weakening of the Chautala clan — Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and its breakaway faction, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). AAP, which is in power in neighbouring Punjab and Delhi, has been on a campaign blitzkrieg in Haryana for the past fortnight having held 45 rallies across all 90 Assembly constituencies.

Led by its top leadership, including AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Sandeep Pathak, Haryana unit president Sushil Gupta and Haryana senior vice-president Anurag Dhanda, the party finished its first round of campaigning, seeking badlav (change), on August 12, with one rally each in every two constituencies.

While the party’s campaign mostly revolved around its five ‘guarantees’ — free electricity for domestic units, free medical treatment, free education, ₹1,000 per month to every woman in the State, and employment for every unemployed youth — announced by Ms. Kejriwal at a town hall event in Panchkula on July 20, the campaign’s punchline, ‘Badlenge Haryana ka haal, ab layenge Kejriwal (Will change the condition of Haryana, will now bring Kejriwal)’, emphasised its focus on Mr. Kejriwal — his ‘Delhi model’, arrest in the Delhi excise policy case and local connection. “The autocratic regime of this country has kept Mr. Kejriwal behind bars for several months. His health is not good, my dear friends. Something untoward might happen to him inside the jail. It is important to tell the people of Haryana about the condition of their son inside the jail,” said Mr. Singh, in his opening remarks at his Karnal rally on July 31 as part of the fortnight-long campaign.

Besides, the party leadership has tried to build a narrative around a host of local and national issues, including the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in armed forces, unemployment, corruption, frequent question paper leaks, and lack of civic amenities, attacking both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in their election speeches.

Trying to gain a toehold in Haryana politics for around a decade now, AAP had a tie-up with the Dushyant Chautala-led JJP for the 2019 Lok Sabha poll and contested the recent parliamentary election in alliance with the Congress as part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc, but without any electoral success. Contesting alone, AAP had fielded 46 candidates in the 2019 Assembly poll in Haryana and finished behind NOTA (None of the Above) with 0.48% vote share.

However, the party hopes to cash in on its victory in the Punjab Assembly poll in 2022 in the upcoming State election and make some political gains in areas along the Haryana-Punjab border. A party source said the State unit is eyeing around a dozen seats in districts along the Punjab border.

“Going by the response to the ongoing campaign, the party hopes to put up a good show in Kurukshetra, Pehowa, Kaithal, Sirsa, Fatehabad and a few pockets in Sonipat and Gurugram,” the source said.