Between setback and survival: AAP's bid to stay in the game

New Delhi: Three days after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was routed in Delhi Assembly elections 2025, party founder and national convenor Arvind Kejriwal convened a meeting in Kapurthala House in the capital. Interestingly, it was not with AAP’s Delhi unit but with the party's Punjab MLAs and chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The official agenda was to thank AAP’s Punjab functionaries for providing the organizational backup in Delhi Assembly elections. A day before the meeting, Congress’ Partap Singh Bajwa set the cat among the pigeons. “Thirty AAP MLAs are in touch with Congress,” Bajwa claimed. The rumour mills started churning. How many of 92 AAP MLAs will attend the meeting? Will AAP splinter away? Why would Kejriwal call a meeting of Punjab leadership and not Delhi?

As the mercury climbed to an uncharacteristic 30 degrees in Delhi on February 11, political temperatures were high as well. Mann emerged from the meeting, satisfied that not a single MLA missed. Inside, Kejriwal had set the agenda – Focus on building direct connect with voters, work unitedly and pave the way for AAP’s return to power in 2027.

GETTING DOWN TO BRASS TACKS

The Delhi loss has thrust AAP into a new role – that of an opposition party. In most of its 13 years of existence, AAP has been ruling Delhi. But now in opposition in the capital city, it has had to reinvent itself. The anti-corruption plank, which had made the middle class of Delhi vote the political newbie to power, has lost most of its sheen. With its top leadership – Kejriwal, former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, former health minister Satyendra Jain and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh – in jail in 2024, the party realized that it would need to bring forth a second rung of leadership. AAP is now focusing on rebuilding its organization from the ground up. It has identified certain states and deputed its leaders to put organizational structures in place.

The party identified four new states for immediate intervention – Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Kejriwal has entrusted these states to his top leaders. Party veteran and former Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai has got the charge of Gujarat, former Delhi chief minister Atishi has Goa, former Kirari MLA Rituraj Govind Jha has been made the in-charge of Himachal Pradesh and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh of Uttar Pradesh. According to sources, the leaders have been asked to stay in the states and not travel out. All the states identified by the party leadership will have Assembly elections in 2027. But the party is already testing electoral waters through local body elections. It contested Goa zilla panchayat polls and retained its lone seat. How important these local body elections are can be gauged from the fact that Kejriwal made campaign visits to Goa in the run-up to zilla panchayat polls.

While it has identified new states, AAP is aware of its sway in Delhi. At present, former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has been tasked with re-energising the party in Delhi. Right after the elections, AAP appointed new vice-presidents and started reorganizing its booth level and block level committees. Bharadwaj holds weekly meetings with party cadres to micromanage issues and gives feedback to Kejriwal. The party then finalizes a list of people’s grievances that need to be amplified.

“AAP may have been defeated but it still polled 43.57% votes. Though BJP won 47 seats and AAP 22, the difference between BJP and AAP’s poll percentage is less than 4%. We are aware of the responsibility as an opposition party. We cannot abdicate that responsibility,” a senior AAP leader, who did not wish to be identified, said.

FOCUS: PUNJAB
The primary focus, however, remains Punjab – the only state where AAP is in power. In 2022, the party had received an overwhelming mandate when it won 92 of 117 constituencies decimating the traditional parties to almost non players in the Legislative Assembly. Incumbent Congress won 18 seats and Shiromani Akali Dal 3. Buoyed by the success in Punjab, the party went all out in Gujarat Assembly elections later the same year. It tasted electoral success as 5 candidates won and it got the third largest vote share at 12.92%. But the parliamentary elections in 2024 changed the political landscape. AAP performed much below expectations and won only three of 13 seats and Congress took the lion's share of 7 seats among opposition parties. In less than a year, Delhi Assembly elections came as a reality check in February 2025, and the party has hit the reset button.

Right after Delhi defeat, AAP’s top leadership descended on Punjab completely taking over governance and the party. A majority of Kejriwal’s public outings are in Punjab. Sisodia and Jain have been given charge of party affairs and have been given government bungalows in the same complex as Punjab’s cabinet ministers. Though Kejriwal expects better management of party affairs through this new system, it has bred a lot of resentment within AAP’s Punjab unit, which feels shortchanged with the complete take over by the Delhi team. However, this has not deterred the central leadership.

The first political test of the Delhi team was Punjab local body elections in December 2025. The zilla parishad and panchayat samiti elections came under scrutiny after a leaked audio clip, allegedly of Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Varun Sharma instructing his subordinates not to allow opposition parties backed candidates to reach centres to file the nomination papers, triggered fears of rigging. The clip had the officer saying that whoever needed to be stopped should be done in their homes and localities and not at nomination centres. The high court was drawn into the controversy. AAP swept the elections. The elections are watched closely to understand which way the rural vote is turning. But at the same time it can be misleading as ruling parties are known to swing them. However, this came as a leg-up for AAP, which ended 2025 on a high. The next litmus test in Punjab will be Chandigarh mayoral elections in late 2026.

FUTURE READY?
The biggest learning for AAP in 2025 has been the urgent need to build a second rung of leadership. The party’s highly centralized style of functioning hurt AAP when Kejriwal and Sisodia were jailed. A sudden sense of drift came about affecting daily functioning. Bitter in-fighting led to the party being divided into camps and leaders indulging in petty turf wars.

A senior AAP leader said, “The party is cultivating a second rung of leadership. It was evident to senior leaders that with Kejriwal and Sisodia in jail the party became rudderless.” AAP has taken the first step in this direction with appointment of seven vice-presidents in Delhi unit.

This year is crucial for the party. It faces the first election in February 2027 in Punjab, and the party cannot afford to lose it if it wants to be a long-term player and not a blip on the political radar.