By Dr. Gyan Pathak
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is back with a bang by winning 2 of the 5 bypolls, just after four and half a month of the setback it had received in Delhi Vidhan Sabha election held on February 5, 2025. BJP had thrown AAP out of power in Delhi after a decade of AAP’s rule in the NCT Delhi, and many political analysts announced the beginning of the end of AAP and its supremo Arvind Kejriwal. Nevertheless, announcement of the result of the bypolls on June 23, marks the beginning of a new phase of AAP and Arvind Kejriwal in national politics of India.
AAP won one of the two seats in Gujarat and one seat in Punjab. It gave a boost to Arvind Kejriwal’s morale, and he came out in public with political statements after his being almost silent after the Delhi shock. AAP could win only 22 seats in Delhi and lost 40 seats it had won in the 2020 Vidhan Sabha election. BJP had won 48 seats and dislodged AAP from power. The only hope left for the AAP is that its vote share was 43.57 per cent as against 47.15 per cent of BJP, signifying that AAP was down but not out in Delhi politics.
Nevertheless, the Delhi shock had politically sealed the lips of Arvind Kejriwal, which the spectacular wins in Gujarat and Punjab, has reopened. AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, while commenting on Gujarat win, said that people are fed up with the BJP in Gujarat, and they are seeing hope in Aam Aadmi Party. He stressed that Gujarat result shows that the people had rejected both the Congress and the BJP.
His statement is relevant given the background of the win of AAP candidate in Visavadar seat in Gujarat. The byelection on this seat was necessitated because of the sitting AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani switch over to the BJP. BJP is known to effect split in opposition rank and file, by threatening them of action or giving temptation to them. Though the sitting AAP MLA defected to BJP, people of the constituency remained with AAP, as the result shows. AAP’s candidate Italia Gopal still won the seat by a margin of 17554 votes against the BJP’s candidate Kirit Patel. Even more important is that BJP’s vote share declined while AAP’s vote share increased on this seat. It should be noted that BJP is ruling Gujarat since 1998, and it is the home state of PM Narendra Modi. Since Kejriwal and Modi are arch political rivals, the outcome in this seat in favour of AAP is significant.
On winning the Ludhiana West seat by AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora defeating the Congress rival candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Kejriwal said that the Punjab win shows that people of Punjab are very happy with the work of the AAP government and therefore they have given more votes compared to 2022.
Kejriwal even said in his post on social media, “Both the parties, Congress and BJP, contested the elections together in both the places. Both of them had the same objective – to defeat AAP. But people rejected both these parties in both the places.”
AAP’s win in Punjab is significant for another reason that it defeated a Congress candidate who has been a senior leader in the party, former cabinet minister, and the current working president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). The result has a toll – Ashu, after his defeat, resigned from his post as working president of PPCC. The major reason behind Congress’s defeat in Ludhiana West appeared to be the “lack of unity” between the Working President Ashu and the Punjab Congress President Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. The political situation in Punjab is thus heavily tilted in favour of the AAP.
Ludhiana West win for AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora has an additional importance, since he is Rajya Sabha MP. In the political corridor of AAP, there has been a buzz for a couple of months that a Rajya Sabha seat is being vacated by Sanjeev Arora, to send Arvind Kejriwal into Rajya Sabha, so that he may play greater role in national politics.
It should be recalled that Arvind Kejriwal has already given full responsibility of Delhi unit of AAP to former chief minister and party leader Atishi. AAP is presently ruling only one state Punjab, where chief minister Bhagwant Singh Maan is performing well.
Though Arvind Kejriwal has denied his going to the Rajya Sabha, senior party leaders are putting pressure on him to go to Rajya Sabha. Kejriwal has been weighing another option – to remain AAP convenor and playing greater role in national politics, while sending another senior party leader to Rajya Sabha.
AAPs wins are significant since it won 2 of the three seats it contested. It is being celebrated in the AAP headquarters in Delhi with renewed vigour. There is a greater hope for the future of AAP not only among the party’s rank and file, but also among its support base. The party and its leadership are all set to begin a more active political future, which may be brighter than the Delhi shock, and the current win. (IPA Service)
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