AAP walks a tightrope ahead of Delhi elections

New Delhi: With violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act spreading across Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is walking the tightrope ahead of the Delhi assembly elections in February. Fearing a highly-polarised election, AAP plans to shift focus to governance and unveil development initiatives and departmental report cards every week.

The first step would be taken this week when the Arvind Kejriwal-led government delivers on its election promise of free Wi-Fi for Delhiites. About 100 spots would be unveiled on Thursday where Delhiites would be able to get free Wi-Fi.

Every Delhiite would be required to login to the network once a month and get 15 GB data free. Within a month, the government plans to increase the free Wi-Fi spots to 11,000.


AAP hopes to shift the narrative to more local issues. A senior AAP functionary told ET, “We know that this is a well thought out gameplan of the BJP. We will tackle it with our governance record. Every week, we will unveil programmes and take our plans for Delhi to the people.”

AAP has spoken vociferously against CAA inside Parliament and outside. At the same time, it is walking the political tightrope as it cannot antagonise Hindus. There is a growing realisation within the party that even the middle class would not look at turf nuances when it comes to maintenance of law and order, which Kejriwal has taken pains to explain is under the Centre and not his government.

Even as AAP trades charges and counter charges with the Centre, the party feels it stands to lose ground in a highly-polarised election. The functionary quoted above said, “It is obvious that BJP stands to gain if there are religious riots and the state is divided between Hindus and Muslims.”