The AAP’s failure in managing dissent

The resignation of senior leader Kailash Gahlot from the Atishi cabinet and his subsequent induction into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when assembly elections are a few months away is a jolt to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Gahlot, 50, has been a minister since 2017 and held important portfolios such as revenue, home and transport. Seen as the Jat face of the party, Gahlot represented a key social segment that facilitated the AAP’s rise in Delhi. His departure leaves a void that the party may have to fill quickly.

Gahlot is the second AAP minister to quit the party since the general elections. The party may point to pressure from central investigation agencies that may have induced him to switch sides, or hint at Gahlot’s displeasure at being overlooked for the chief minister’s post which went to someone he considered his junior. But it is a blow to the party.

The AAP may argue that the departure of senior leaders will not hurt the party’s electoral prospects since voters only look to endorse Kejriwal and his choices rather than any individual leader. On Sunday, Kejriwal urged party cadres to work as if he was the candidate in all 70 seats in the Union territory. The metamorphosis of a party that grew out of a people’s movement into the extended image of one leader may work in the short term — it did in the 2015 and 2020 Delhi assembly elections, surely — but reduces growth opportunities for other leaders and certainly, the party in the long-run. It limits the space to accommodate differences, address the aspirations of second-rung leaders, and prevent ambitious dissenters from taking the extreme step of quitting the outfit. It is also a slap in the face of the very politics the AAP promised when it was birthed from a popular anti-corruption movement.

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