Leadership vacuum, discontent among cadre: AAP’s turbulent 100 days since Delhi loss

The AAP has also faced a series of defections of its councillors — the anti-defection law does not apply to the MCD — due to which the AAP has seen its numbers dip from 134 to 97.

Internal strife

In an effort to move on from its Delhi debacle, the AAP has assigned new roles in new states to its Delhi leadership as part of its national expansion strategy.
Several of them remain engaged in Punjab — the only state where it has retained power. Former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, now the party’s Punjab in-charge, and former PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, his deputy, are leading the election strategy there. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has also been focusing his attention on the state.

Former Delhi convenor Gopal Rai has been moved to Gujarat, while several mid-level leaders have been deputed to other poll-bound states.

But in Delhi, a vacuum has emerged, which has been intensified by silence from the top leadership. On May 18, the widespread speculation of disarray within Delhi’s AAP unit was confirmed after 15 councillors elected on AAP tickets tendered their resignations to announce the formation of a new political front — the Indraprastha Vikas Party. Another councillor had joined a few days later, bringing their numbers to 16.

Even former AAP MLAs who defected to the BJP before the elections have since receded from public view. Among them is Kailash Gahlot. Former transport minister and prominent AAP face who switched allegiance to the BJP and won, he has remained largely absent from public and party activities — a silence interpreted by many within AAP as a tactical retreat.

Exacerbating the party’s challenges is its rebel Rajya Sabha MP, Swati Maliwal. Once a prominent advocate for women’s rights within the party, she has emerged as one of its most outspoken critics in the wake of an acrimonious fallout with the leadership after she accused Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar of assaulting her.

In the lead-up to the Assembly elections, she publicly highlighted governance failures, a stance that party insiders said aligned closely with the BJP’s campaign messaging. Following AAP’s defeat in Delhi, Maliwal shifted focus to Punjab, where she has criticised the Bhagwant Mann-led government for its handling of law and order and public services.

Legal cases

The BJP, meanwhile, has continued to press allegations of corruption against AAP as it did during the poll campaign.

In May, the Delhi government’s Vigilance Department sought permission from the Centre to initiate an inquiry against former health ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj and Jain over alleged irregularities in the construction of 24 hospitals.

Sisodia and Jain have been booked by the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Delhi government in connection with a Rs 2,000 crore “classroom scam”.

A case has also been filed against Kejriwal for the alleged misuse of funds in putting up “illegal” hoardings in Dwarka.

And in the background, the hearing in the excise policy case, in which several AAP leaders have been named, continues in court.

What’s next?

In Delhi, day-to-day responsibilities have fallen to a few key figures. Bharadwaj, in his new role as Delhi State Convenor, is managing local party affairs, while Leader of Opposition Atishi has been vocal on issues such as power outages and private school fee hikes.

Atishi, as per the party, recently earned a small point for the AAP when the BJP-led Delhi government announced that it will roll out a law against fee increases in private schools. While hundreds of parents had taken to the streets, AAP MLAs and workers too held protests.

The scrapping of government subsidies and diminished quality of education are issues the AAP had extensively campaigned on. Asked about the party’s performance as an Opposition, Bharadwaj said, “If you ask Delhiites… at least 15-16 people will say we are missing AAP; this is something that I have personally asked about, and many people… have affirmed this. Secondly, people had forgotten the BJP’s 15-year-long rule in the MCD, so they somehow got swayed by their slogans and by the Prime Minister’s guarantees. Now, they have realised that it’s the same old BJP which was there… For our leaders, volunteers, to be a part of the opposition was a new road but we have transitioned well.” In an attempt to revive its grassroots engagement, AAP re-launched its student wing on May 21 under a new name — ASAP (Association of Students for Alternative Politics). The launch event saw both Kejriwal and Sisodia in attendance — their third appearance in the Capital in months — and was aimed at reviving the party’s presence through campus politics.

But such initiatives remain isolated. For a party once defined by street-level mobilisation and daily press briefings, the past three months have marked a visible reduction in political activity.