The new AAP with old non-AAP faces

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s reported intent to drop or retire a third of its Delhi MLAs is a move that reflects the immense pressure on political parties to respond to anti-incumbency ahead of elections. Last week, senior MLA and Speaker of the Assembly, Ram Niwas Goel announced that he would make way for a new candidate on account of his age and health. Voters have become more demanding and are not necessarily impressed with under-performers or those seen as ineffectual even if they are willing to back their party. The BJP was the first party to recognise this and in recent years, ruthlessly culled sitting legislators whose winnability quotient has declined.

Even the AAP in the 2019 Delhi assembly polls dropped 16 of its sitting legislators to duck anti-incumbency and win 62 of the 70 seats. However, it is interesting that this time the AAP has sought to find replacements from the BJP and Congress. For instance, the AAP’s first list of candidates announced last month saw three sitting MLAs missing out and six former legislators from the Congress and the BJP entering as its nominees. The AAP, clearly, has travelled far from its founding days when it demonised the legacy parties and promised to reinvent politics in Delhi with a set of grassroots leaders who had no electoral baggage.

The change of track suggests that the AAP now recognises that it needs local leaders with their own support base to supplement the party’s influence. This is an interesting step since it dilutes the earlier stance that Brand Kejriwal was sufficient to win elections. There is, however, an element of risk in this tactical shift for it may not be possible for the party leadership to lord over the new imports the way it could with its home-grown leaders. The AAP may be forced to negotiate a potential demand among the lower rungs for internal autonomy if it wants to expand itself in a conventional manner, which is by inducting leaders from other outfits.

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