AAP rebrands student wing to expand, but youth leaders see no logic

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and senior leader Manish Sisodia also participated in the event.

Rebranding exercise

In a post on X the same day, Kejriwal said, “ASAP will not only give a new direction to student politics but will also become a strong platform for Alternative Politics. Through this, we will prepare a young generation that will change the definition of politics and work for the country. The energy of the youth will now be channelised into the politics of change.”

However, it is not the first time the AAP has “launched” a student wing.

In 2014 too, the party announced the formation of the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), which contested elections across universities. An ASAP leader also told The Federal, that the current organisation will be “an extension of the previous student wing only, but our name and face will be ASAP now”.

This exercise in “rebranding”, therefore, has ruffled feathers among some of the student and youth activists of the party, who said they were blindsided by the launch and the name-change. They also alleged that AAP had neglected the old organisation.

Shortly after CYSS was launched in 2014, the AAP announced its decision to contest the DU Students’ Union (DUSU) elections in 2015, hoping to capitalise on the wave of support for the AAP in Delhi.

CYSS was routed in that election, emerging third and even fourth in some seats, with the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) sweeping all four seats. After dropping out of the DUSU race for two years, the organisation contested again in 2018, and this time, they teamed up with the Left group’s All India Students’ Association (AISA). However, this too did not meet with much success.

Unhappy voices

Now once again, ASAP has announced its decision to contest the DUSU polls this year. Those involved with CYSS in the past, however, have said the decision was imposed on them without any “democratic decision-making”.

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Sadique Raza, who had been associated with CYSS since 2017, and was Delhi vice-president in 2023-24, said, “If they had called a meeting of CYSS activists and discussed it with them, it would have been democratic. However, the decision was taken solely by the party leadership. We had no idea about it. We got to know through the media that this has happened.”

Raza told The Federal, “It took us 10 years to give CYSS a pehchaan (recognition) in DU. So many students, in their idealism, took time off from their studies to invest in the organisation. What will simply changing the name achieve? Will the organisation grow by changing its name? AAP lost the elections, including in Delhi. Now if we contest here, will we change the party's name? It doesn’t make any sense. This politics of name-changing is BJP’s game. It is not our politics.”

Shivani Singh, former CYSS media in-charge for Delhi, said AAP would form coordination teams every year. However, there was no team formation in 2024.

“Even when we formed a team earlier, nobody was taking accountability of the team or the student wing. We were not getting any guidance from the party’s end. They did not extend support; we tried many times. They never focussed on the student wing or the youth. Now that they have lost the Delhi elections, they’ve done this rebranding exercise to focus on the youth,” she said.

“Rebranding will not do anything for them. At least some students know CYSS; nobody knows ASAP. This will just create confusion and chaos among students,” she added.

CYSS did not just contest in Delhi, but in several universities across the country. It did not find much success except in Panjab University (PU), where it won the presidential poll in 2022. People outside Delhi too have voiced their apprehensions about the rebranding.

Munmun Kumari, who was the Patna University vice-presidential CYSS candidate in 2022, told The Federal, “A lot of people didn’t know CYSS and still don’t know about it. But when I fought in 2022, we were able to get some limited visibility despite facing many challenges. I only got to know after the announcement that the party has decided to change its name. A name is an emotion. We have connected to the name, CYSS, all these years. Now they’re saying they have not got success so they’re changing the name. This sounds like some astrological type of thing.”

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The CYSS lost the elections in Patna.

No integration

A CYSS leader at Panjab University who is also involved with ASAP told The Federal that they were not asked about the name change, they were just informed about it.

“CYSS contested elections seriously only in Punjab University. We have a rigorous organisation; we work with students. We’ve been getting 2,500-3,000 votes and finishing first or second in the polls. We’ve established the identity of CYSS here. Now simply changing the name for optics is not going to achieve anything,” he said.

“They need to consider the form and structure of a student wing seriously. CYSS was not properly integrated into the party like an NSUI or an ABVP. It was a student wing, but it was left to its own devices. It needs to be integrated into the party; just having a launch event is not going to help. Like in Congress, Kanhaiya (Kumar) is the AICC (All India Congress Committee) in-charge of NSUI (National Students’ Union of India), here we don’t have any in-charge. When you need to get something done, who do you go to?” he said.

Divyansh Thakur, who contested as PU president in 2023 and lost, said, “Let’s leave the name-changing to the party that is known for changing names.”

Expansion plans

On its part, ASAP hopes to achieve more than just a name change. “We will aim to expand our wings pan-India. This is primarily not just to contest elections like the ABVP and NSUI, but also to hold discussions and conclaves on different kinds of social and political issues. We will create a public discourse around the issues AAP believes in and engage students in social activities,” an ASAP leader told The Federal.

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Asked if CYSS activists were involved in the current structure, the leader said, “Right now the focus was on branding, and slowly a structure will be put in place."

“Everyone in the organisation has been informed. Our Delhi and Punjab circuits are very strong. Other states also will get information very soon through their in-charges. The flow of information is always from top to bottom, so it will take some time to trickle down. But we will be strengthening all the units,” the leader added.

Asked why the name had to be changed, the ASAP leader told The Federal, “Senior party leadership decided, we don’t have a say in it.”