Of the five States going to the polls starting next month, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to have the best prospects in Punjab. In Goa, where the party is hoping to perform well, the AAP seems to have lost steam after making a grand entry.
Perhaps for the first time in Punjab’s electoral history, the State is set to see a three-cornered fight between the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine, the Congress and the AAP.
Many view the AAP as the main hurdle before the Congress in its attempt to regain power in the State after a decade. The Lok Sabha election in 2014 was a pointer to the AAP’s rise, with the party winning four of the 13 seats in the State.
Political analysts said there was a strong possibility of the voters “experimenting” with the AAP in the elections.
Lost momentum
In Goa, the other State where the AAP has a presence, many feel the party has lost momentum after party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s massive public rally in Panaji on May 22.
Political observers feel it can at best spoil the prospects of the Congress, which is grappling to retrieve its lost base among Goa’s Catholics, comprising 26 per cent of the State’s population.
“My view is that the AAP certainly has gained much greater visibility in Goa in the last six months to attract a significant floating vote. But to how much extent it can percolate down remains to be seen,” said Dr. Rahul Tripathi of the Department of Political Science, Goa University.
Former Goa Law Commission member Cleofate Almeida said that with the AAP concentrating only on the Catholic vote, it “will only damage the Congress”.
Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer Datta D. Naik does not doubt the AAP’s sincerity but he does not think it will make a serious impact on the elections.
AAP’s national general secretary Pankaj Gupta, however, said the party was confident of forming the government. “The Congress is nowhere in contention; it will be a contest between the AAP and the BJP,” he said.
