Out of power, AAP to have tough time fighting legal battles, keeping its flock united

The winning streak of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly polls finally came to an end on Saturday (February 8) as the party not only lost power but also substantially lost its vote base in the national capital.

The road ahead for the AAP and its leadership may not be easy as the BJP has already announced that the decisions of the state government will come under scrutiny for alleged irregularities.

While the electoral defeat of the AAP was a major setback for the party, what added salt to the injury was that party chief Arvind Kejriwal along with some of the its top leaders, including Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Somnath Bharati, also lost the polls.

Also read: BJP storms to power in Delhi with ‘helping hand’ from Congress, AAP rebels

SIT to probe financial dealings

To add to the AAP’s troubles, the BJP has announced that they will form a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the financial dealings of the AAP leadership.

Even before the results were declared officially, the General Administration Department (GAD) of the Delhi government issued a notice saying that no document, file, computer hardware could be taken outside the Delhi Secretariat. The GAD said that the decision was taken to protect the records of the Delhi government.

“The name of Arvind Kejriwal is synonymous with the Aam Aadmi Party. The crisis of AAP is that Kejriwal and all those who were considered close to him have lost the polls. Among the top leaders of AAP, only Atishi has managed to win her seat. The BJP will try to target Kejriwal and the investigations would make it even more difficult for the AAP leaders to defend themselves,” Yatindra Singh Sisodia, author and Director at Madhya Pradesh Institute of Social Science Research, Ujjain, told The Federal.

The challenge for the AAP leadership, especially Kejriwal and Sisodia, is also personal because both of them are facing corruption allegations and were out on bail before the polls. While the AAP has contested the allegations levelled by the BJP and called them politically motivated, the problem for the duo now is that the party has been thrown out of power in Delhi.

Excise policy, Sheesh Mahal taint

With the threat of investigations into the alleged corruption charges against Kejriwal, the AAP is facing a credibility crisis. The party is also apprehensive that all its crucial decisions will come under greater scrutiny with the BJP in power, both in Delhi as well as the Centre.

It is expected that the BJP will also come out with a detailed report on the populist schemes of the AAP. The AAP government was already facing criticism from the Delhi High Court for not being able to table the CAG report that allegedly pointed to discrepancies in the Delhi excise policy.

Political analysts believe that the BJP “created hurdles” for the AAP government in Delhi through the LG office, which led to frequent tension between the AAP leadership and the LG.

“The BJP has tried to corner the AAP by continuously creating problems in the functioning of the Delhi government. The frequent face-off with the LG and the Delhi bureaucracy created a situation which led to anti-incumbency. The AAP government was unable to function over the last few years as its leadership was incarcerated and the regime was under pressure from the LG’s office. The AAP leadership was unable to gauge the extent of the damage the BJP caused to the party and its government,” Abhay Dubey, author and professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), told The Federal.

Also read: Delhi elections | Five reasons why AAP and Kejriwal bit the dust

Challenge to keep party together

With AAP losing power in the national capital, the party is also likely to face the challenge to keep its flock united. Just before the start of the Delhi election campaign, at least 15 AAP leaders quit the party and joined the BJP.

Political analysts feel that with power going out of AAP’s hand in Delhi, the party will have a tough time in stopping more of its leaders from switching over to the BJP.

“All those who left the party recently joined the BJP. However, the threat still looms as former party leaders like Kailash Gahlot would try to lure more AAP leaders to the BJP. Similarly, there is also a threat of AAP leaders switching loyalty in Punjab, which is now the only state ruled by the party,” Sisodia added.