New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party conceding defeat in the recently announced Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) poll results following its defeat in the assembly polls has pushed the party to the sidelines.
The founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party including party chief Arvind Kejriwal and his fellow party leader Manish Sisodia have been more active in Punjab than in Delhi handing over the affairs in once its bastion to Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj, a move that has raised questions over the party's future strategy.
ETV Bharat spoke to people from different quarters about the future of AAP in Delhi. Here are the excerpts from the interviews.
Question: After losing the Assembly elections, now out of the MCD, what is the future of AAP in Delhi?
Answer: After continuous defeats in Delhi, it is not unnecessary to raise questions on the future of the Aam Aadmi Party. In a country where the nature of politics in every state is different from each other, if the Aam Aadmi Party wants to rise at the national level, then only one of the two factors works. That is, strong high command and ideology. A party like BJP keeps the states of Haryana to Maharashtra and Karnataka united by ideology, while a party like Congress is also able to run the government in Himachal Pradesh and southern states like Karnataka and Telangana due to a strong high command.
Aam Aadmi Party's founding member and former MLA Rajesh Garg says that the Aam Aadmi Party has always described staunch honesty, staunch patriotism and humanity as its ideology.
"But in the last two years, the way the liquor scam in Delhi, the Sheesh Mahal scam and the scams in government schemes are coming to the fore, the staunch honesty of Aam Aadmi Party has been severely dented on this issue. Staunch patriotism already has a strong opponent like BJP. In such a situation, the Aam Aadmi Party is not that strong on this scale. Today, after losing power in Delhi, the credibility of the party's high command has also been tarnished," he said.
Question: What is the main reason for coming to the opposition now, after being at the top of power in Delhi a decade ago?
Answer: After getting majority in the Delhi government and now the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), within three years, the Aam Aadmi Party surrendered itself before the mayoral elections.
Political analyst Naveen Gautam explains that the common people in Delhi have more to do with the MCD than the government. From the birth of a child to the death of a person, one has to visit the MCD for a certificate, he said.
"Road, cleanliness of the locality, maintenance of parks, issues related to drains and streets, toilets etc. are related to the Municipal Corporation. Due to these issues, the Aam Aadmi Party had to face defeat in the assembly elections held in the last few months. The leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party were thinking that after the change of power, it would not be that easy for them to work in the MCD as well," he said.
"When the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the year 2022, only then this was realized. The work of the MCD is visible, which the AAP was not successful in completing. In such a situation, the strategy of the party can now be to corner the BJP on the functioning of the government and the MCD. This can be a strategy to garner people's sympathy by raising people's problems and cashing in on their resentment. Aam Aadmi Party is in the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, now the party can go into the opposition in the MCD as well and use the public's sympathy to increase its support," added Naveen.
Question: What is the biggest challenge before the Aam Aadmi Party now?
Answer: After losing power from the Delhi government about two and a half months ago and now from the MCD, the Aam Aadmi Party now faces a big challenge to maintain unity among its workers and leaders. After the defeat in Delhi, the biggest challenge before the Aam Aadmi Party is to keep the party united in Punjab, Goa, Gujarat and other states.
The way Aam Aadmi Party councillors joined the BJP just before the assembly elections, the result is that the Aam Aadmi Party surrendered itself to the BJP even before the mayoral elections.
In the mayoral elections held on 25 April, Aam Aadmi Party took a well thought out strategy and decided not to field a candidate. If AAP had faced a big defeat in the mayoral elections after fielding a candidate, it could have affected the morale of the party workers. That is why on 21 April, the day of nomination for the mayoral elections, Aam Aadmi Party announced that it would not field a candidate in the elections and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and second-in-command Manish Sisodia did not give any reaction.
Question: Will the defeat in Delhi affect the government in Punjab as well?
Answer: Till a few months ago, the Aam Aadmi Party was in power in two states of the country. The party was celebrating being a national party, now it has lost power in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party definitely has a government in Punjab but the big question now is how much control the high command can have on the government and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Question: Is the Aam Aadmi Party a one man show?
Answer: If we believe political analyst Jagdish Mamgain, Aam Aadmi Party is a one man show party, which the party had already anticipated.
Mamgain said that the result of this is that immediately after the Delhi election results, the party convener Arvind Kejriwal has now started to gain hold on Punjab.
"Immediately after the defeat in Delhi, he went to Punjab for Vipassana and after that he held meetings regarding the work of the Punjab government, toured and it is being discussed that now he is preparing to register his presence in the Parliament by getting elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab itself," he said.
"But the big question is that the Aam Aadmi Party had formed the government in Punjab by branding the Delhi model. But now the people of Delhi have rejected the Delhi model itself, Arvind Kejriwal himself could not win his own seat, in such a situation how much hold will the party have in Punjab".
Question: The Aam Aadmi Party came to power talking about changing politics, but did politics change them?
Answer: Yogendra Yadav, a founding member of Aam Aadmi Party and a political analyst who was once close to Arvind Kejriwal, says that the dream of alternative politics that the common people had from the Anna movement in 2012 had been shattered long ago.
"Aam Aadmi Party had come to change politics, but politics changed them. After losing elections continuously, the possibility that something can be done for the common man of Delhi has also been dashed and the leadership of Aam Aadmi Party itself is responsible for this. They used to say that we will not take security, we will not take bungalow, after that such a big bungalow has been built, whether it is a glass palace or not, whether it is something made of gold or not, but one thing is certain that he is not 'the one' whose dreams Aam Aadmi Party saw," Yadav said.
"We don't know whether Manish Sisodia or Arvind Kejriwal are directly involved in the liquor scam or not. But it is true that there was something fishy in the liquor policy. There was something fishy and something was going wrong. If you are calling the whole world thieves, pointing fingers at the world, then you should also start looking carefully at the three fingers that are pointed towards you. If there is such a stain on your character, then no one will leave you. The leadership of Aam Aadmi Party worked in this direction, after which there was no scope left, in such a situation the opposition got a chance and now AAP has come out of power and is in the opposition".
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