Aam Aadmi Party: The ‘common’ party

In the summer of 2011, Anna Hazare, a Maharashtra-based social activist, started a fast-unto-death protest in the national capital’s Ramlila Maidan, seeking a ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ to fight corruption.

The movement ‘India Against Corruption’ was quick to catch the public imagination, pulling thousands into the sprawling grounds at the heart of Delhi, as it grabbed national and international headlines.

Many thought it was India’s moment of revolution.

The then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was forced to engage with the ‘Team Anna’ to draft a Jan Lokpal Bill. But as their demands were not satisfactorily met, Arvind Kejriwal, one of the chief architects of the movement, and others left Mr. Hazare behind and formed a political party on November 26, 2012 — the Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party).

The party’s main aim was to fight corruption, and surprising many political observers, it came to power in Delhi in December 2013, with the outside support of the Congress. Mr. Kejriwal, an IIT graduate who had worked as an IRS officer, was sworn in as the Chief Minister.

Tasting success in Delhi, the party was ready to spread its wings beyond the capital, and ahead of fighting against the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Mr. Kejriwal read out a list of corrupt political leaders, while addressing party members in Delhi in January 2014. The list included P. Chidambaram, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kapil Sibal, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi. “This is just the beginning and the list will grow. Should they be defeated this time or not?” he asked the audience.

Fast forward 11 years. AAP leaders, including Mr. Kejriwal, now share stage with many of these leaders and is part of the opposition alliance ‘INDIA’, along with the Congress.

Over the 12 years since its formation, the AAP seems to have slowly slid away from at least some of its founding ideas and in many ways become similar to another ‘aam party’ (common party) from ‘aam aadmi party’. From fighting corruption as its core idea to hardly talking about it now; from Mr. Kejriwal travelling in Delhi Metro and an old blue WagonR car to swanky SUVs now; from statements of Mr. Kejriwal not taking bungalows to a controversy of renovating his government bungalow for over ₹30 crore today– the list of changes and contradictions goes on, each one pushing the AAP a little more closer to any other political party.

One-man army

The AAP has come a long way politically from the Ramlila Maidan. After coming to power in Delhi in December 2013, the AAP government resigned after 49 days as it was not able to table a ‘Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill’ in the Assembly, lacking necessary numbers. Mr. Kejriwal then went back to the people of Delhi and they gave the AAP a historic mandate of 67 out of 70 seats in 2015, and the AAP returned to power in 2020 by winning 62 seats. The party came to power in Punjab in 2022 and later that year, it won five seats in Gujarat with a 12.9% vote share. This performance led to the party getting the ‘national party’ status in 2023, in just a little over 10 years since its formation.

But along this journey, founding members such as Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were expelled, while many others left the party. As the party grew, the power also consolidated in the hands of one man – Mr. Kejriwal — and his inner circle.

In January 2021, the party quietly amended its constitution, changing a clause that prevented anyone from holding a post for more than two consecutive terms of three years each. This made way for Mr. Kejriwal to continue as the national convener, the highest post in the party. The AAP has in many ways become synonymous with Mr. Kejriwal and the party’s manifesto is even called “Kejriwal’s Guarantees”.

Over the years, the AAP’s electoral politics has crystallised into a promise of welfarism and subsidies, peppered with Hindu symbolism and nationalism. Mr. Kejriwal does not shy away from saying they are building ‘Ram Rajya’ in Delhi and even built a 30-feet-high replica of the ‘Ram Mandir’ in Delhi, using public funds as part of Diwali celebration of the Delhi government and did puja with his Cabinet colleagues at the replica.

During the anti-CAA protests in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, Mr. Kejriwal tactfully stayed away. He even said he would have got the roads cleared of the protesters if his government had control of the Delhi Police.

In 2019, the AAP voted in favour of the abrogation of Article 370 and the Bill stripping Jammu and Kashmir of Statehood. In the run up to the 2025 Delhi Assembly election, Mr. Kejriwal did not campaign in many areas with sizeable Muslim population such as Mustafabad and Okhla.

Loss and future

One of the hardest blows the AAP received since its inception was in 2022, when allegations of a scam in the Delhi excise policy started to shake the AAP, leading to the arrest of senior leaders, including Mr. Kejriwal and his trusted deputy Manish Sisodia. The AAP supremo, who came out on bail in September last year, resigned as the Chief Minister, stating he wants to prove his innocence in ‘Janata Ki Adalat’ (people’s court) as the court case will drag on for years. Atishi, Mr. Kejriwal’s confidante, succeeded him as Chief Minister for the remaining term.

Both Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Sisodia lost the election along with the AAP when results were out on February 8.

As dust settles on the Delhi polls, the AAP is left with a question: what hurts more? The party losing power in Delhi or the party chief losing the election? For the AAP, which contests elections in other States, including in Punjab in 2022, on Mr. Kejriwal’s face value and the ‘Delhi Model’ of governance, it will be hard to recover from the combination of both the losses.

Shift in votes

Party insiders say the shift in middle class voters to the BJP cost them the election. But many workers say the distance between the leaders and the workers has also grown as the party grew. With just 22 out of 70 seats in Delhi now, it is the worst performance of the AAP since it was formed. Another question is that will the AAP, which has almost never been without power in Delhi, survive five years or more without power?

Unlike the Left or the BJP, where people rise through the ranks over years if not decades to become MLAs or Ministers, many of the AAP leaders had reached those positions almost overnight without cutting their teeth in politics for years. That said, the AAP’s vote share in the Delhi election was only 2 percentage point less than that of the BJP. In contrast, the Congress is behind the saffron party by almost 39 percentage points.

Also, a change in law by the Union government in May 2023, which negated a Supreme Court judgment, and gave the control of the bureaucracy in the Delhi government to the Union government-appointed Lieutenant-Governor. This is a crucial factor in Delhi, which is not a full State. Many AAP supporters believe that the party’s fortunes could have been different if Delhi was a full State. It would be mistake to write off the AAP as it has time and again demonstrated the ability to bounce back from setbacks.

But what is to be seen is whether the party, having moved away from many of its core ideas, will be able to stand out from other parties or whether the public will see it as just another political party.