AAP Loses AADMIS

With rebels chafing at Kejriwal’s “dictatorial ways”, the party looks headed for a split in the state

- Asit Jolly

From a fledgling party that took the Punjabi hinterland by storm, winning four Lok Sabha seats in 2014, the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab has been reduced to a deeply divided political entity. That, in a state where AAP had started out with much promise, perhaps even more than its 2013 debut in Delhi.

On August 2, seven of AAP’s 20 MLAs hosted a convention of volunteers at Bathinda, in open defiance of the party’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal. While the rebels, led by former Congressman Sukhpal Khaira, failed in their promise of getting 14 legislators to attend, the massive turnout—largely AAP volunteers and supporters from the southwestern Malwa and central Doaba regions—has the Delhi chief minister and party leaders in a sweat. In fact, Khaira claims that “95 per cent of the party’s rank and file, barring a handful of leaders beholden to Delhi, are with us”.