The euphoria over the Delhi win has barely receded but there are already indications, however tenuous, that AAP is seized of what it ought not to do. The bravado that characterized the party's demeanour after its 49-day rule in Delhi has thankfully given way to much-needed discretion. Instead of the scattershot approach which it adopted in the Lok Sabha election, AAP now wants to be methodical in its expansion. The Delhi win changes little on the ground in most states; the strategy to build ground-up had begun in June 2014, one of its main objectives being to beef up units across the country.
According to former banker Meera Sanyal, who contested from Mumbai South in the Lok Sabha polls as an AAP candidate, it is only a question of time before the party becomes a national political alternative, but it will have to first deliver in Delhi. Never mind that some of its prominent faces in the rest of the country think the iron is hot enough. While the party is yet to take a call on which assembly or municipal corporation elections it wants to fight in the next two years, it needs to do what it did so effectively in Delhi: engage with the electorate long before an election through initiatives like 'Delhi Dialogue', which Sanyal calls a "game-changer" for the party.
To bring you a sense of where the party stands outside the capital, ET Magazine takes a look at 10 states (in alphabetical order) and examines how close — or far — AAP is to fighting an election. Plus Bengaluru, whose municipal corporation goes to the polls this year. Read on:
Assam: Between BJP and the Deep C
BJP just a substitute for Congress, AAP can be an "alternative"
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In the run-up to the Delhi polls, Raja Deori spent quality time mobilising voters for AAP in east Delhi. An artist by profession, Deori campaigned door-to-door and helped organise small meetings to garner votes for Manish Sisodia, now deputy chief minister in Arvind Kejriwal's newly installed Delhi cabinet. Deori is one of the very few AAP faces in Assam. He says he has no idea whether the leadership will have Assam on its radar for future battles, but insists there is a political vacuum in the north-eastern state that goes to polls in 2016; and that the new kid on the block must seize the opportunity. "There is anti-incumbency against Congress, which has ruled the state for 14 years now. The BJP at best can be a substitute, not an alternative. AAP can be the latter," he says.
If results of the last Lok Sabha elections and the recently held municipality polls are considered, BJP has an advantage now. The party which clinched seven out of 14 Parliamentary seats in the May 2014 Lok Sabha polls, recently dominated in the civic bodies election by winning 39 of the 74 municipal boards and town committees against just 18 of ruling party Congress. The 126-seat assembly, though, is another ballgame in a state where roughly a third of voters are Muslims. The Parliamentary polls indicated that minority votes too have been migrating from Congress to a third force — All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) which managed to win three Lok Sabha seats, the same as Congress.
"We all have seen the misrule of Congress and the communal agenda of BJP. So, there is a scope for a new force. I admit AAP has no organisational strength in the state, but grassroots workers are motived after the landslide victory in Delhi," says Bhaben Handique, joint coordinator of AAP's Assam unit.
When Kejriwal the activist visited Doyang in Golaghat district of Assam a few years back, it was Handique who drove him around in his Alto car. And when Kejriwal's prepaid phone stopped working, it was Handique who provided Kejriwal a mobile phone. Handique is quick to point out that his party is not in a hurry. "In a week, I will be in Delhi carrying all the feedback that we are collecting now. Let the Central leadership take the final call on AAP's Assam journey," he says. - Shantanu Nandan Sharma
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