Punjab: Who’s the backbone of the Aam Aadmi Party?

By all accounts, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is preparing for a post- Bhagwant Mann phase in the state.

The telltale signs of Mann being cut down to size have become more pronounced following the party’s fairly ordinary performance in the Lok Sabha elections and Kejriwal’s return from jail.

As AAP rebels made a beeline for Delhi under assembly speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan, rumours about Mann’s health and imminent replacement circulated freely. The cabinet was reshuffled and Mann’s favourites, including family members and friends, were thrown out of the CM’s office and replaced by Kejriwal’s nominees.

Arvind Kejriwal’s one time PA in Delhi, Bibhav Kumar — who went to jail following accusations of assault, abuse and intimidation by the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal — is now reportedly running the CM’s office. Campaigns for the four by-elections were directed by AAP general secretary Sandeep Pathak.

While the previous by-election in Jalandhar was led actively by Bhagwant Mann, who set up base in the city and was joined by his family, this time his family was absent and he had to share the limelight with Arvind Kejriwal. AAP’s 3–1 victory was interpreted as a victory of organisation and canny candidate selection rather than Mann’s charisma.

In a further blow to the chief minister, he was replaced as state party president by Aman Arora, who lost no time in embarking on a Shukrana Yatra starting from Kali Devi Mandir in Patiala and covering all the major cities of the state on the Grand Trunk Road.

A minister in Mann’s cabinet, Arora is an MLA from Sunam, the very same constituency in which Bhagwant’s village Satoj falls. Arora is known to be a confidante of Delhi with an uneasy relationship with Mann.

His appointment is being seen as the party’s attempt to woo urban Hindu votes for municipal elections due in many parts of the state on 21 December. AAP had performed poorly in most urban seats during the Lok Sabha elections and Aman Arora’s selection as state president is a move to repair the damage.

In the past, ruling parties in Punjab preferred to entrust the state president’s responsibilities to the chief minister or his trusted aide.

In 1999, a major crisis had erupted in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) when SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra called for chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to relinquish the party president’s post. Tohra was eventually ousted for his temerity.

During the 15 years of SAD rule in Punjab, the position of the state president remained either with Parkash Singh Badal or his son Sukhbir Singh Badal. Similarly, when Amarinder Singh became the CM, it was a confidante like Sunil Jakhar or a lightweight like Harvendra Singh Hanspal who functioned as state party president. Bhagwant Mann’s situation is similar to that of Amarinder Singh in 2021, when his most ardent foe Navjot Singh Sidhu was installed as the state Congress chief and most MLAs deserted him.

With little support from within the party, a resurgent high command and his rivals gaining power and prominence, Bhagwant Mann’s fortunes are fading fast. All that stands between him and Kejriwal delivering the coup de grace is personal popularity and the results of the Delhi assembly elections due in February.

***

Given the history of by-polls in Punjab, AAP’s 3–1 victory should be read more as a draw than a decisive win. The party though has been organising festivities to reinforce the perception of all-out success. Victory celebrations in Delhi, followed by the carefully staged and faithfully amplified Shukrana Yatra in Punjab, aim to project an invincible AAP and a demoralised opposition. This narrative targets the masses, volunteers and bureaucracy alike.

However, the reality is far more layered. Historically, the combination of state machinery and voter pragmatism has often led to ruling party victories in Punjab’s by-elections, regardless of popularity. During the Akali Dal’s decade-long rule, Sukhbir Badal lost only one by-election.

Similarly, during his second tenure, Amarinder Singh lost just one by-election (Dakha) while winning five others. Far from being an exception, AAP’s recent victories are consistent with this trend. In fact, had the Akali Dal not boycotted the elections, AAP might have lost in Gidderbaha and Dera Baba Nanak. A significant signal from the Shukrana Yatra is AAP’s clear intent to reclaim its lost Hindu and urban vote bank. The party’s underwhelming performance in the Lok Sabha elections was largely attributed to urban voters shifting their support to the BJP.

***

Discordant notes have arisen from within. If there is one party that has abused and mistreated its workers, it is the AAP.

This ‘party with a difference’ had shouted from the rooftops that it would be a democratic party run from the grassroots, with all decisions including the selection of party candidates made by volunteers. Sadly, not.

In both Delhi and Punjab, volunteers have been treated as unpaid labour, fit only for poster distribution, sloganeering, filling up rallies and canvassing support in Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana.

Some volunteers say AAP is one of the most authoritarian parties in the country, run ruthlessly by Kejriwal and his team, with little voice allowed even to elected MLAs. Volunteers are just cannon-fodder, they say, to be used during campaigning and then discarded at will. AAP is the only party in India, they point out, without a durable party structure. It has always been ad hoc, constructed for each election and then swiftly disbanded.

Their designation as ‘volunteers’ indicates party workers cannot nurse any illusion of rights. At least the term ‘party worker’ holds a modicum of respect and dignity, say these disgruntled AAP volunteers. They point out that AAP’s success in Punjab and Delhi was built on the hard work put in by thousands of dedicated and idealist volunteers who were seduced by the party for electoral purposes. Aware of their value especially during elections, AAP leaders occasionally put them on a pedestal, as Bhagwant Mann did by calling them “Bhamakkars”.

With local body elections in Punjab and Delhi assembly elections round the corner, AAP spin doctors are once again singing paeans to the volunteers. After brazenly discarding them in favour of turncoats who deserted the SAD and Congress to join the AAP, volunteers are once again being lionised for allegedly coming up with the idea of the Shukrana Yatra and hailed for being the backbone of the party.