#dnaEdit: Aam Aadmi Party goes back to Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party’s decision to skip the assembly elections in four poll-bound states and focus on Delhi marks a new trajectory for the ambitious 20-month-old party. Arvind Kejriwal’s guarded call to supporters to convene at Jantar Mantar on August 3 at 3 pm where he will predictably raise the tempo for fresh assembly polls is a marked departure from the AAP’s brand of indefinite hunger fasts and action-laden street protests. Read together, the AAP and Kejriwal appear to have accepted the public verdict that this was a party in a hurry, leaning too heavily towards agitational politics, without a comprehensive agenda to justify its ambitions of becoming a counterweight to the BJP, Congress, Left and the socialist parties.

After the aggressive posturing in the Lok Sabha elections, where 432 tickets were doled out, the AAP appears to have made peace with its minimal presence on the ground. Without enough hands to undertake the hard work of campaigning, most of these candidates lost security deposits despite garnering impressive four and five-digit voting figures. While this signalled a decent start, the AAP spread its human and monetary resources too thin. Its campaign faltered in Delhi, coming second in all seven Lok Sabha seats despite increasing its vote-share from the 2013 assembly polls. Having rejected corporate donations, the AAP’s funds, collected online and offline from individuals, have reduced to a trickle. The meagre coffers do not permit the luxury of venturing into states where returns could be minimal. Of the pollbound states, the AAP counted heavily on Haryana and Maharashtra in the general elections, but the poor showing, especially in rural constituencies, exposed the party’s urban character.

By focussing on Delhi, Kejriwal has the opportunity to prove he can deliver good governance. The AAP’s obsession with anti-corruption is clearly not enough to hold voter attention. The Janlokpal Bill, for which Kejriwal sacrificed his 49-day-old government, has lost traction with the enacting of the Lokpal Act. The Delhi assembly is in suspended animation for over five months now but no breakthrough in government formation has resulted. It is doubtful whether the unconstitutionality of the bureaucracy lording over Delhi without an elected government accountable to the people can become the AAP’s trump card at its August 3 “dharna”. Despite the AAP repeatedly raising the hesitation of the Congress, and now the BJP, to announce fresh polls, this has hardly enthused the poll-weary public. But then, the allegations of horse-trading and attempts to break parties, if true, does no credit to those resisting early polls.

A long spell at the margins as an opposition party should serve to reaffirm and not dilute the AAP’s promise of practising alternative politics. By going slow, the AAP and Kejriwal are reminding the cadre that there are no shortcuts to political power. All political parties have earned their spurs through a long track record of involvement in socio-political and local issues before succeeding electorally. The architect of the ‘go-national’ strategy, psephologist Yogendra Yadav would know that. In Delhi, the AAP’s activism in the anti-corruption movement and its involvement in the December 16 protests propelled it forward. The AAP’s success in Punjab was an aberration; an expression of popular anger against the Akali Dal and the Congress that needs to be consolidated. The AAP’s credentials as an anti-establishment outfit held out charms to many; but a new phase of mature deliberation and community mobilisation is imperative for sustaining the momentum.