Kerala: AAP sees good start; may find it difficult to break stranglehold of political parties

Like all new parties, Aam Admi Party (AAP) made a slow, but steady start in Kerala. That changed after the Delhi assembly election results were announced and Arvind Kejriwal became CM. Membership has grown furiously ever since. AAP’s Kerala convenor Anil Aickara said the ‘Likes’ “for our Facebook page were 25,000 before the Delhi election. They have now gone up to 2 lakh”.

Aickara agrees all ‘Likes’ may not translate itself into membership. “But it shows a positive trend.” AAP has actually not even formally kicked off its membership campaign in the state, which is due on January 13. The party is looking to enrol 5,000 members each in all the 14 districts by January 26 (on Friday, writer Sarah Joseph joined AAP).

These are impressive numbers because the Congress-led United Democratic Front and CPM-led Left Democratic Front coalitions have left little room for other parties or alliances to take root in the state. AAP leaders say that is because the alternatives were found to be wanting. The AAP story is different, said spokesman KP Ratheesh.

AAP has hit the ground running in the state, having already formed its executive committees in all the 14 districts. “The overall membership stood at 35,000 as on January 7, ” he said.

Going by the public response, AAP leaders in Kerala say the party would soon be a force to reckon with. Kerala is a festering ground for corruption, unfulfilled promises and price rise, particularly of cooking gas and petrol and diesel, traits it shares with many parts of India and which helped AAP to grab power in Delhi.

AAP is also preparing to take up local issues like absence of waste management, specific issues like the controversy with regard to the Aranmula airport project etc to grow in Kerala.

The party is yet to announce the number of seats it will contest in the approaching Lok Sabha polls. The organizational machinery is strong enough to face the polls only in two or three constituencies, according to Aikkara. AAP has caught the imagination of Kerala. But it remains to be seen if it can break the stranglehold the two coalitions have had on state politics for decades.