THE Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is faced with a serious predicament after its what could be called a poaching game by the BJP in the national capital. Now the game has extended to Punjab, another province where the regional party is well-entrenched. With a set of AAP parliamentarians led by Raghav Chadha quitting the parent party and heading for the BJP route, regional chieftain Arvind Kejriwal must be crest-fallen and wondering how to stem a tide of exits from the party. Chances are that Chadha and his team, with their strong bases in Punjab could take the offensive to a new level – breaking the AAP in Punjab, where it runs the state with Bhagwant Mann as chief minister, carrying a hefty support of 92 of the 117 legislators. The defectors claimed they have the backing of some 60 AAP legislators in Punjab.
Punjab is heading for assembly polls in February next after the successful and likely completion of a five-year term by Mann. Being the ruling party, the AAP might have lost some of its eminent support there in recent years by its acts of omissions or commissions. The BJP, it appears, is bent on grabbing power even as it has only two MLAs there, against three by the former ruling party the Shiromani Akali Dal and 18 by principal opposition the Congress. The BJP is capable of pulling off a coup through the strength of its money power. It has wrested power from AAP in the national capital in last year’s elections and simultaneously targeted Kejriwal and his associates in alleged corruption cases like the Delhi liquor scam. Kejriwal has managed to extricate himself after his arrest and imprisonment, but he has a more difficult road ahead. If, eventually, the AAP loses Punjab too through defections, he would lose the resources to effectively fight the coming assembly polls there. Kejriwal’s attempts to establish a base in Gujarat and Goa have not found favour with people there.
Once a hero of the anti-corruption movement, Kejriwal has managed to keep up his reputation as a champion of the poor. His initiation to public service was through the humanitarian efforts he as a youth undertook in Delhi’s slums. It eventually won him a Magsaysay award and good cash to launch his political establishment after leading the anti-corruption movement under the tutelage of veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare. But electoral politics required tonnes of funds. That he was accused of corruption was no small matter. It hurt his image to an extent though many believe he’s sincere about his causes. He’s a class apart in politics. The good part of Kejriwal as the head of government was that he stood by the ordinary masses – aam aadmi – unlike the present crop of politicians who speak up for the poor and pander to the whims of the elite. The BJP, with its RSS bulwark and religion-based ideology, exceeds its brief unchallenged. The anti-defection law, which helped check defections, might or might not come to the help of AAP and Kejriwal in the present context.
