Opinion Punjab election result will make or break Kejriwal’s ambition to take on PM Modi in 2019

Over the past two years, the AAP has channelised all its resources, despatching its A-team to Punjab to build the organization from scratch and has come a long way as one of the top contenders in the state. Though the party also made its electoral debut in Goa, a 40-seat assembly, it has not been very optimistic of invading the BJP bastion. For now the AAP is only looking at making inroads in the state with a few seats in friendlier South Goa, from where the party has named its CM candidate Elvis Gomes.

Punjab with its 117 assembly seats is AAP’s best bet to showcase its governance in a ‘full state’ as Kejriwal has often been at loggerheads with the Center and complained of hurdles in governing Delhi because of multiplicity of agencies and authority. If AAP wins Punjab, Kejriwal will remain in Delhi as the CM but will focus his attention on ‘delivering’ promises made in the state. The party has reportedly drawn up a list of corrupt leaders that it will be gunning for if it forms government.

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Winning Punjab would also mean emerging as a formidable alternative to the Congress party and will put AAP in the reckoning in sizeable bi-party states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where the AAP has already begun groundwork. Most exit polls have shown Congress in a neck-to-neck contest with AAP in Punjab. In Delhi, the Congress was wiped out in the 2015 assembly polls as AAP recorded a historic win with 67 seats. The Congress downslide since has given the party much hope.

In the run-up to the Punjab polls, Kejriwal alone addressed close to 100 rallies across the state while his cabinet ministers toured extensively narrating the achievements of the Delhi government in sectors like health and education. The anti-corruption crusade remained its centerpiece as the party took on the Badals and the Congress led by Captain Amarinder Singh.

Though the party had started out on a more optimistic note in Goa after Kejriwal’s rally in May last year, it suffered a serious resource crunch with most of the top leadership engrossed in Punjab. The BJP has been on a stronger footing in the state with several senior leaders like Manohar Parrikar and Shripad Naik directly overseeing the poll preparations.

Punjab remains the clincher for AAP and the countdown to the poll results continues to be an excruciatingly long wait for Kejriwal.