Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had announced its big debut in all poll-bound states, particularly the Northeastern states, in 2023, the work of organisation building in many of these states is yet to pick up pace. This is one of the major reasons why the party has decided to stay out of the upcoming Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya polls, the first of the assembly elections to be held this year.
While Tripura goes to polls on February 16, Nagaland and Meghalaya will vote on February 27, all in a single-phase election. Results of all the three states will be declared on March 2.
The AAP recently acquired the status of a national party after it gained substantial vote share in the Gujarat assembly elections held in December 2022.
It had then declared that it will expand its national footprint, beginning with the nine poll-bound states in 2023 — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, apart from the North-eastern states of Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
THE DRIVE
According to senior AAP functionaries, the party’s organisation in these three Northeastern states so far hasn’t shaped up the way it was expected to contest the assembly-level polls. “We are not contesting assembly polls in these three states this year, as we are still working on organisation-building. In Tripura, our cadre base has strengthened a lot more from last year, but it’s still at district level. There are eight districts in the state and we have leaders in each of it. But we need to get into assembly constituencies in each district to field the right candidates before we are ready to fight the state polls,” said Rajesh Sharma, AAP national council member and in-charge of party’s Northeastern states.
The AAP had launched a membership drive in Tripura in June last year and plans to launch similar drives in Nagaland and Meghalaya this year.
In Nagaland, the party has recently appointed a state president, while in Meghalaya, it has no organisation on ground as such. “The party appointed Asu Keyho, ex-MLA from the Congress, as the poll-bound state’s president this January. At present, the state is in election mode. We will expedite organisation-building in these states once elections are over. We have decided that in any state, we will first contest local elections such as village panchayats, town committee and municipal level polls to form the grassroots cadre base,” said Sharma.
THE ISSUES
Sharma added unemployment, unavailability of clean drinking water, medical facilities and violent politics are the issues in these states, which the AAP will highlight in its organisation-building. “There is a massive issue of educated youth being unemployed, as there are no or limited job opportunities in the state. Then there is political violence with groups of rowdy men affiliated to some political parties attacking the opposition parties each time they try to promote their agenda. Basic facilities such as potable water, health and school education need to be fixed to improve people’s lives in the state,” he said.
TO CONTEST MIZORAM POLLS IN 2023, ASSAM ELECTIONS IN 2026
The AAP plans to contest Mizoram assembly elections, which are due in November this year. Party leaders said that even though there’s not much in the name of organisation in the state, it has huge support from the local youth in Mizoram.
“We are definitely going to contest the Mizoram state polls this year, although, at the moment, we can’t say from how many seats. The youth in the state have connected with the AAP in a major way. Everything that the party announces, the youth translate it into Mizo or run it online with subtitles, which goes viral each time. There is a large fan base for AAP leader Raghav Chadha, who is a youth icon here. We are planning to soon have Chadha and party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal visit the state to address the youth,” said Sharma.
Besides, the party is preparing for the Assam state elections that are due in 2026, where, according to party leaders, they have a good organisation base. The AAP plans to contest the panchayat elections in Guwahati, which are due in November this year. It already has local councilors each in Guwahati, Lakhimpur and Tinsukia.
“We plan to contest the Lok Sabha polls also from some seats in the state where we have good candidates. Several MPs and MLAs, who are unhappy in other parties, are likely to join us soon,” he added.
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