An Alternative Swaraj

AAP is determined to expand its political base by fighting the Punjab assembly elections. But it faces a challenge in the form of Prashant Bhushan and YogendraYadav, who have hinted at plans to form a new party to take on AAP.

When the Aam Aadmi Party surprised everyone by win-ning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats in the 2013 Delhi elections, the common grouse in the Congress and the BJP was that they had not anticipated its rise and had therefore not targeted the party and its candidates adequately. Though subsequently in the 2015 polls both the national parties targeted AAP, it was too late. Arvind Kejriwal’s outfit returned to power with a thumping majority securing 67 seats, as this time even the Dalits and Muslims had realised it was a force to reckon with and could provide an alternative to the two traditional rivals.

However, soon after that victory, Aam Aadmi Party began disintegrating. It expelled two of its stalwarts and founder members, advocate Prashant Bhushan and social scientist and psephologist Yogendra Yadav, leading to a split in the party which saw many of its state leaders, especially in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab also moving away. The dissident group subsequently formed Swaraj Abhiyan in April 2015 and recently announced its decision to form a political party to carry forward the unfinished agenda, which it claims, had originally led to the formation of AAP.

This new formation probably poses the biggest threat to AAP as it seeks newer pastures in Punjab and Goa, which are headed into Assembly elections in 2017. The threat lies in as much as both the formations eyeing more or less the same vote bank as the ability of Bhushan and Yadav to expose the widening chasm between the promises and utterances of the AAP leaders and their plans and actions.