When the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept Punjab in the Assembly elections last year, every indication was that the party would make a move for Haryana as both Punjab and Delhi, the state’s neighbours, are ruled by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party. But that did not pan out and the AAP disbanded its state unit in January. Now, the party has lost the lone municipality where it had a chairperson. In June 2022, the AAP won the post of chairperson of the Ismailabad municipal committee. But last Friday, the chairperson, Nisha Garg, left it to join the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala. On joining the JJP, Garg said, “Being a lone chairperson, that also from an Opposition party, it was difficult to get work done. I had to take the rounds of offices for the work that would have been done by making just a phone call if it was from the ruling party. It took eight months just to get tenders for the construction of streets and benches there.” Though an AAP leader played down Garg’s defection saying that “it is not a big issue for the party”, a perception has gained ground that the party had failed to utilise the tailwind generated by the Punjab landslide. Initially, leaders such as former state Congress president Ashok Tanwar, former state minister Nirmal Singh and his daughter Chitra Sarwara moved to the party but in recent months no prominent faces have joined its ranks. Garg’s husband Punit has claimed that to date the AAP has not made any move to revive its state organisation. The lack of organisational coherence has reflected in the party’s electoral performance. With the Congress, the principal Opposition party, not in the fray, the AAP secured a little over 10% votes and won the post of Ismailabad municipality chairperson. Then came the Adampur Assembly bypoll last November where the AAP’s Satender Singh received just 2.6% of the votes, finishing behind the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Kurda Ram Nambardar who secured 3.99% votes and losing its security deposit. The AAP’s dismal show in Adampur bypoll revealed the lack of organisational strength as the party stumbled despite Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann holding a roadshow in the constituency. The same month, panchayat elections were held in Haryana. The party put in a decent performance in Sirsa and Ambala districts. In Sirsa, it emerged as the second-largest party after the INLD while in Ambala it won more seats than the ruling BJP. AAP leaders at the time said the party won 15 of the more than 100 seats it contested on the party symbol. In January, the AAP scuttled the state unit and announced that by April-end a new organisational structure would be in place and the state unit would bear a fresh look. But that has not happened yet. Offering a counterintuitive explanation, AAP insiders claimed that the party’s “limited activities” were part of the leadership’s strategic move “as it would have been difficult to maintain hyper activities for long because the Assembly polls are due in Haryana in October 2024”. Rajya MP and AAP’s Haryana in-charge Sushil Gupta said he was hopeful of the party’s prospects in the state improving in the coming days. “We will declare the party's organisation for the state within a week, which will increase our activities,” he said. “We have enrolled 11.77 lakh new party members within a month. Units will be formed at the level of booths and mohallas.” According to political observers, Kejriwal and Mann should have toured the state immediately after the Punjab win but they let the opportunity pass. They pointed out that the Delhi CM came to Kurukshetra to address the “Ab badlega Haryana” rally in May 2022, more than two months after the Punjab results were announced. Also, unlike a state such as Gujarat where the AAP was able to gain a toehold by eating into the Congress’s vote share, the grand old party is stronger in Haryana under the leadership of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. That leaves new political outfits looking to make space for themselves with a much tougher job.
