On November 23, at the AAP’s National Council meeting, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal categorically said that the party isn’t eyeing the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and will concentrate only on Delhi and Punjab. “We are not in the race for 2019. We need to focus on what we have,” he said while addressing 247 senior members of the party.
The announcement came six months after the AAP expelled Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Even weeks before his expulsion, Mr. Yadav was looking after the party’s expansion plan - Mission Vistaar. A noted political scientist, Mr. Yadav had said that the AAP’s target was to capture more than 20 per cent vote-share in each of the states where the party wants to become a viable alternative.
Those ambitious plans have now been shelved. But the AAP still has plans to go national and is expanding its base in every state. There are 12 Prahbharis (State heads) for the 29 States, and the party is carrying out an aggressive membership drive. “At present, our focus is to identify local issues and go regional in every state,” said Pankaj Gupta, in-charge of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. Political scientist Sanjay Kumar, director of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), believes that the party wants to make its presence felt but, at present, it is testing the waters. “The party has made a conscious choice to contest Punjab elections in 2017. They didn’t contest Bihar or any other civic polls this year. Also, there are four assembly elections in 2016 but the party is not taking part in any of them. This shows they are taking it very slowly.”
“Arvind Kejriwal is very popular but it is not enough to yield votes,” said a party leader. After its success in Delhi, party leaders had eyed Bengaluru as one of the key cities to expand the party’s base through civic polls in August. The city unit of AAP even picked a few wards on a pilot basis and raised issues. It even had launched Bombat Bengaluru to crowd source a vision plan for the city. But a fortnight before the Bengaluru municipal elections, the party backtracked. Party insiders said that lack of preparation, absence of eligible candidates and internal battles made them rethink. The decision came as the party had 'learnt' from the Lok Sabha debacle.
