Aam Admi Party (AAP) made a stunning debut in Gujarat urban local bodies winning 27 of the 120 seats in the Surat Municipal Corporation to emerge as the main opposition party. For AAP these results were %u201Cbeyond expectation%u201D and must have come as a balm after the party%u2019s recent rout in Punjab urban local bodies elections. The results have also given it hope for Uttar Pradesh where it will be contesting panchayat elections for the first time.
The win is being attributed to the AAP getting its caste arithmetic right. It has a Patidar— Gopal Italia— as its state unit president. The community was ignored by the Congress. Of the 27 seats won by AAP, 25 were previously held by the Congress so it would be wrong to say that AAP is coming up as an alternative to the BJP.
There was another factor which helped AAP spring a surprise in Prime Minister Narendra Modi%u2019s Gujarat. %u201CAs part of our strategy we prepared ward specific manifestoes like the way we did in Delhi municipal elections. We raised real issues and did not make any fake promise of development,%u201D said Abhay Maheshwari, the party%u2019s spokesman in UP. However, it is the BJP which has been controlling Delhi%u2019s three municipal corporations.
For UP panchayat elections too, the party is preparing separate manifesto for every village panchayat as the issues vary. %u201CWe run a questionnaire among the people to elicit their views on the issues that concern them the most,%u201D Maheshwari said.
There%u2019s one huge difference between Surat municipal body and UP panchayats in that AAP had to contend with only the BJP and the Congress in Surat. In UP it will have to four opponents—the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and the BJP. Although the party considers itself to be a potential alternative to the BJP, it may not cause any dent in the ruling party and, like in Gujarat, may end up damaging the Congress more than the SP or the BSP. As the Congress is already not in the reckoning it can at best hurt the BSP and to some extent the SP.
Maheshwari expects AAP to do better than the SP and the BSP as both were infamous for %u201Csheltering criminals%u201D of all shades and corruption. %u201CWe will be filtering the criminals out,%u201D he said.
Given that AAP%u2019s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has been busy doing the groundwork to help the party take roots in UP%u2019s villages it has over the last few months become a point of discussion in political circles in Lucknow. Though not many are ready to put their penny on the party, they are watching the developments with interest.
Last year Delhi%u2019s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was in Lucknow and challenged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for a comparison between government schools of the two states to prove that the AAP government was doing better work in the education sector than the UP government. AAP is expecting that its %u2018mohalla clinics%u2019 and the %u201Camazing%u201D transformation of government-run Delhi schools will be the party%u2019s USP in UP.
