Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal’s declaration that the party would not entertain any alliances for the Delhi Assembly elections slated for February next year is as clear a signal as any that the short-lived tie-up between the Congress and AAP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has come to an end. An AAP spokesperson said her party was capable of taking on the ‘overconfident’ Congresss and the ‘arrogant’ BJP on its own. This may seem like tit for tat for the Grand Old Party’s refusal to come to a seat-sharing arrangement with AAP for the Haryana elections, but it makes sense for Kejriwal’s party to go it alone as the Congress is in extremely bad shape in the national capital. It has not managed to win a single seat in the Delhi Assembly in the last decade after its 15-year rule under Sheila Dikshit was brought to an ignominious end by the fledgling AAP. The Congress and AAP fought the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi together but did not manage to win a single seat. In Punjab the ruling AAP refused to entertain a tie-up with Congress for the LS polls. The alliance between the AAP and Congress for the Lok Sabha election under the aegis of the INDIA bloc was an unnatural one because the two parties are natural rivals in the national capital. AAP owes its existence to the India Against Corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and Kejriwal, targeting the then Congress-led UPA regime at the Centre. The Delhi unit of the Congress has always been at loggerheads with the AAP, seeing it as the upstart party that dethroned it from its position of power in the Capital. The party high command’s insistence on a tie-up for the Lok Sabha polls was reluctantly accepted by the local unit. However, now the knives are out and the Grand Old Party has been conducting a padayatra against AAP’s alleged misrule in the Capital.
On the other hand, AAP has managed to wean away several leaders from the Congress and BJP. The coming election is a do-or-die battle for the AAP, BJP and Congress. The BJP is hoping the slew of cases against senior AAP leaders will open the eyes of the people to the alleged corruption in the ruling party and give the saffron camp a chance. The AAP, meanwhile, is hoping to play the victim card and cash in on the sympathy factor over Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain being jailed for months on end and finally getting relief from the Supreme Court. It is also harping on the poor law and order situation in the Capital as the police comes under the Union Home Ministry. The Congress has a long road ahead to recover lost ground. Its poor performance in Haryana and Maharashtra has put it on the back foot and the euphoria over its vastly improved performance in the Lok Sabha election has all but fizzled out. The Delhi polls will be an indicator of which way the wind is blowing in national politics.
