After a dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, its home turf, the Aam Aadmi Party is bracing for a major organisational revamp. This comes after several party MLAs complained about absence of internal democracy in the party and alleged that only four people were taking all the decisions.
Threatened by the BJP’s sweep in Delhi, one of the tasks the party has set for itself is to set its house in order and start preparing for the Delhi Assembly polls. According to a senior AAP leader, the leadership took the party’s disappointing performance in the city “very seriously” and is ready to take radical measures to put the party back on track.
“During the first meeting which was attended by all the senior leaders and MLAs, every body talked about how a large number of party workers were demoralised and upset as they felt that the party leadership took Delhi for granted in their quest for a national goal,” said a party leader who attended the meeting.
AAP leader Ashutosh has been assigned the task of preparing a blueprint for the organisational restructuring. He is expected to prepare it in the next three weeks.
During the last six months, the AAP has got thousands of workers and dedicated party volunteers. Now that the polls are over there is no mechanism to engage them. Sources in the party told The Hindu that there is a proposal to dissolve all the district and Assembly level committees.
As part of the assessment process, performance of every district and Assembly coordinator of the party’s Delhi unit will be scrutinised and then the panels will be reconstituted after separating the non-performers. There is a strong view within the party that in order to tap the energy of the new workers they need to be bound and engaged in booth level polling committees. The process will also entail assessing the roles and performance of senior leaders during the polls and their sizes will be undercut by redistribution of their work. One of the proposals is to have joint conveners along with Arvind Kejriwal, who is the convener.
The Political Affairs Committee, which is the highest decision making body of the party, and its National Executive will also be expanded in order to make them more representative of the party’s support base. “The AAP’s support base comes from the subaltern classes. Bodies like PAC and National Executive will have to reflect that support base. For instance, we do not have any representation of Dalits and women in the PAC,” the AAP leader added.
