Having faced a huge defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, where it expected to put up a significant fight in urban centres, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has begun introspecting on how to strengthen its organisational structure, which in some pockets of the State is non-existent.
The performance of the party in Tamil Nadu reflected the national trend, where it was whitewashed in most States despite facing the polls on the popular anti-corruption platform.
In the 24 seats it contested, the party managed to get just over 20 lakh votes in Tamil Nadu, achieving a total vote share 0.5 per cent.
The poor performance has clearly woken up the outfit, with all the candidates submitting an analysis of what went wrong to the party high command.
State campaign convener of the party David Barunkumar says that a weak organisational structure was one of the foremost issues that party had to tackle in the immediate future.
“For the Lok Sabha elections, we had very little time to work on the party set-up. Now, we have close to two years left for the Assembly elections, which we have set as our target,” he points out.
While the party has currently appointed convenes at the district levels, a woefully large number of posts at the ward and panchayat levels are lying vacant.
Adding to this is the fact that the party has not managed to add much to the number of members in its fold after the polls, which is stagnating around two lakh.
Membership drive “If we are to fill the posts at the lower levels, we have to improve our membership drive,” Mr. Barunkumar says, adding that certain issues of leadership in the State unit also need to be set right to ensure a hassle-free membership drive.
Apart from the internal assessments the party has done after the elections, Mr. Barunkumar says that the AAP has begun to focus on local issues to improve its presence across the entire State.
