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Lacking cohesion, AAP in a spot before Punjab assembly bypolls | Opinion
AAP president in Punjab and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, the only AAP candidate to retain his seat in recent Lok Sabha elections, said he will lead the party in bypolls.
AAP president in Punjab and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann on Sunday announced that the party will contest the by-elections to three assembly seats in the state.
Mann, the only AAP candidate to retain his seat in recent Lok Sabha elections, said he will lead the party in bypolls. But the two-time MP seems to have jumped the gun as several party leaders, including leader of opposition in Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema, are saying that the core committee will hold a meeting soon to decide whether to contest the bypolls in Dakha, Jalalabad and Phagwara assembly constituencies.
The committee, constituted by the AAP leadership to take all key political decisions, had set up two separate panels in June to assess the “ground reality” in Phagwara and Jalalabad and submit their reports. Dakha fell vacant about 10 days ago and all three are expected to go to polls along with Haryana and other states where the assembly elections are due in October.
Before the core committee could decide, these different voices have not only again bared the lack of cohesion that has been the bane of the dissent-hit party in Punjab, but also its state leaders’ predicament after a dismal performance in the parliamentary polls.
Shrinking base, dismal showing
Being the principal opposition party, the AAP is expected to contest the bypolls and challenge the ruling Congress in the state. The party had won Dakha and stood second in Jalalabad in the 2017 assembly elections. However, it has hurtled from crisis to crisis since and fared poorly in all its electoral outings, including two byelections and municipal polls.
The severity of losses was humiliating and exposed the shrinking support base of the party left in total disarray by ceaseless bickering and desertions. Against a vote share of 24% in the state elections, the AAP polled just 7% votes in Lok Sabha elections.
In these three assembly seats, the party fared even worse with its candidate getting less than 2% votes in Dakha, a seat it had won with 40% vote share two-and-a-half years ago. No wonder some party leaders are worried about another disastrous result and its political implications. Those in favour of contesting say if the party opts out, the morale of party workers will be hit.
Phagwara and Jalalabad seats fell vacant as sitting legislators Som Prakash and Sukhbir Singh Badal were elected to the Lok Sabha whereas AAP MLA HS Phoolka resigned from the assembly as well as the party.
AAP’s self-centered mess
The party, which made a dream debut by winning four Lok Sabha seats in 2014, has proved to be its worst enemy. Though it emerged as the principal opposition party, pushing the SAD to number three, there was a nagging sense of underachievement among the party leaders who blamed each other, particularly the “outsiders” deployed by the Delhi leadership.
The factional feud, which led to constant bickering, came to a boil when Bholath MLA Sukhbir Khaira was removed from the post of LoP and eight of the 20 MLAs staged a revolt, throwing the party into turmoil. Of them, four, including Khaira, quit the AAP before the Lok Sabha elections. Their resignations are pending before the speaker for decision.
