What does a national party mean in India? Beyond the symbolism of having a national footprint, it’s not much — the party’s symbol is reserved, it gets office space and some legally guaranteed airtime. In fact, many official national parties are not even national in the strictest sense, limited in their vote catching abilities to a few states.
It appears to have zeroed in on an aspirational narrative of governance delivery with its so-called Delhi model, and successfully connected it to Arvind Kejriwal in a way that has resonance and recall. (PTI)
Against this backdrop, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to become the ninth national party in India after it established a toehold in Gujarat. The young party has sought to project this as a major achievement, but in reality, it appears the party has decided to use the status as a launch pad for another stab at being a national player. The party must be hoping it’s third time lucky, given two previous attempts at going national, in 2014 and 2019, were singularly unsuccessful.
Three things favour its latest foray. One, unlike previous years, the party now has a majority government in a province outside its birthplace Delhi, and it has shown the ability to run a full-fledged campaign in a new state such as Gujarat. Two, it appears to have zeroed in on an aspirational narrative of governance delivery with its so-called Delhi model, and successfully connected it to Arvind Kejriwal in a way that has resonance and recall; and three, the attrition of the Congress has left a large pool of disgruntled voters who are there for the picking.
But challenges remain. As Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat showed, the party still struggles to break political duopolies and its version of ideology-light politics may have only limited appeal in provinces with entrenched regional leaders. But most of all, it’s yet to demonstrate a strategy to fight the increasingly presidential style Lok Sabha polls, where the BJP regularly sweeps its bastion in Delhi. Whether it decides to charter its national ambition one state election at a time, or make a Lok Sabha splash will determine how national a party it can become.
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