a bitter internal battle

25/04/2015

With the expulsion from its ranks of founder-members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, the Aam Aadmi Party would seem to have put an end, at least for now, to a bitter internal battle that has taken much of the gloss off its historic victory in the Delhi Assembly elections of February 2015. The party now says its focus would be on the governance of Delhi while it takes a ‘dynamic’ call with regard to contesting elections in other States. This may be a simple statement but it reveals much about the nature of the party’s ambitions. A significant part of its internal battle may have been a clash of egos and personalities, but if one were to identify an ideological thread, it is this: Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan wanted the AAP to quickly seize the initiative to build a national presence. They argued that in order to do this the party should formulate a position on several matters of national import. Mr. Kejriwal, on the other hand, wanted to focus his energies on ridding Delhi of corruption and ensuring better delivery of services to its citizenry. This, to him, is a form of politics in itself where ideology has no part. Given the way the cards have fallen, the future of the AAP now rests on Mr. Kejriwal’s performance as Chief Minister of Delhi.
It cannot be denied, however, that in the process of being engineered to suit Mr. Kejriwal’s wishes the party has lost much. As an immediate example, think of how much it would have benefited from having Mr. Yadav or Mr. Bhushan as its spokespersons articulating views to its advantage after a farmer committed suicide at a rally organised by it in New Delhi on April 22. As it was, its current lead spokesperson Ashutosh had to publicly apologise after making some bizarre and insensitive remarks. Further, the AAP has lost its appeal as a party that could accommodate a variety of opinions and voices. Internal differences within political parties may be nothing new. But when was the last time a political party actually expelled its own senior members rather than accommodate them? Even until a few months ago such things may not have mattered to it as the AAP seemed to be building up its image as the only party that could take on the BJP. However, it now faces the prospect of the Congress, along with the Left parties and the Janata Parivar, building up strength and presence with their agitations against the land acquisition bill. By the time the AAP is able to market the Kejriwal model of governance it may well have lost a lot of ground. In order to avoid that prospect, it needs to devote at least a part of its focus to a discourse on national issues. The AAP thus stands at a crossroads today.

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