Arvind Kejriwal leading charge in Haryana but leadership rungs are empty

CHANDIGARH: While neither in Delhi, nor in Punjab has Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) party been able to form pre-election coalitions so far despite its best attempts, its condition perhaps is nowhere near as precarious as in the state sandwiched between the two. From the Congress to nascent JJP, AAP has been in constant talks for months to form alliance to fight parliamentary elections in Haryana, but to no avail.


The desperation of AAP is quite obvious as there are multiple factors putting it in disadvantage in Jat land. A near absolute absence of known face in AAP Haryana is apparently the first. In a state where politics is largely based on identities, this is hampering the party’s forward movement. Except AAP Haryana head Navin Jaihind, there is hardly any known local face. Rajya Sabha member Sushil Gupta, who is party state in charge, has been active for some time but cannot claim to have a mass following.

Having wrested power within six months of coming into being in Delhi and marking presence in Punjab by bagging four parliamentary seats, in Haryana, AAP has still been struggling to establish its presence for the past six years.

AAP, which unsuccessfully contested all 10 seats of the state for the first time in 2014

Lok Sabha

polls, had got a vote share of 4.2%. The party is planning to fight on all the seats again on its own if no tie up takes shape. Last time around too, a known TV studio face and political scientist Yogendera Yadav, who had fought on AAP ticket, could not save his security deposit. All other party candidates performed even worse.

Yadav was later thrown out of the party and formed another political outfit Swaraj Abhiyan in 2015. This gave another challenge to AAP to reset its district and assembly units.

AAP claims to have 1.25 lakh volunteers for booth management, apart from ranks and files in place in all district and at sub-divisional levels. Yet the visibility of the party on the ground, especially in the rural areas is quite poor.

Party insiders claim that fighting parliamentary polls in Haryana is important for AAP as it would enable them to prepare for the state assembly elections to be held later this year.

They claim that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who comes from Baniya family with roots in Hisar, could move to Haryana as Delhi government has limited powers which doesn’t allow the party full play for its policies and politics.

“Finding 10 candidates is easier. If we get traction, finding 90 candidates for the assembly elections would become much easier,” party sources say.

This is one of the reasons, AAP is trying hard to forge an alliance with the Congress and JJP to fight it out against BJP in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. The Congress has, however, rejected proposals for Haryana and Punjab. While JJP too has apparently refused to align as the seat sharing formula did not work out for Delhi.

“Our efforts are on to stop BJP from entering Haryana. We have AAP’s performance of the Delhi government, compared to scams and jumlebazzi and caste politics of BJP in the Centre and the state. We are fully prepared for elections,” claims Jaihind.

“It is not any alliance or particular party that would help us. Like in Delhi, it is the voter who will strengthen us in Haryana,” he says when asked about desperate attempts for a pre-poll tie up.