The Aam Aadmi Party's project to expand into Haryana, the home state of party chief Arvind Kejriwal, appears to have failed to take off once again with leads suggesting that it is on course to draw a blank.
If the trends hold, it will be a huge setback for the AAP, especially since it comes months ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections and because it has sparked discussions on whether the party made a strategic mistake by deciding not to ally with the Congress.
While local leaders of the Congress were not in favour of an alliance with the AAP, senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was learnt to have pushed for it, arguing that it would prevent a division of votes and give the opposition its best chance of defeating the BJP.
The senior leadership of the AAP was also learnt to have been keen on a tie-up but reports had said talks had hit a roadblock because the party wanted to contest at least 10 of Haryana's 90 Assembly seats while the Congress was in no mood to concede more than seven.
The collapse of alliance discussions was expected to hurt the Congress in seven seats – Kalayat, Rania, Pehwa, Barwala, Jind, Bhiwani and Gurugram – but only the results will show how much of an impact the AAP managed to have.
One of the key pitches by the party had been that it has popular governments in Delhi and Punjab, both of which are Haryana's neighbours. Borrowing one of the BJP's favourite phrases and one-upping it, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha had said that this would enable the party to bring a "triple engine" of development in the state.
Bad Timing?
The Haryana results have come at a time when Arvind Kejriwal has given up the Delhi chief minister’s chair and, banking on his popularity, said that he will take up the post only if the AAP forms a government after the Assembly elections next year.
The AAP chief had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and then by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor policy 'scam'. Two days after being granted bail by the Supreme Court last month, he had sprung a surprise by announcing his resignation and saying that while he has got justice from legal courts, he would now seek justice from the "people's court".
"I will sit on the Chief Minister's chair only after the order of the people… I want to ask the people of Delhi, is Kejriwal innocent or guilty? If I have worked, vote for me," he had said.
While the Haryana elections may not have a direct bearing on Delhi, if the party fails to win even one seat after contesting nearly all of them, it is expected to dent the morale of workers. The AAP had also lost the lone seat of Kurukshetra that it had contested from Haryana in the Lok Sabha polls as well as all four constituencies it had fought in Delhi.
