Does AAP’s loss in Delhi signal the end of ‘alternative politics’ in India?

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made a spectacular entry into Delhi politics in 2013. It rode the wave of an anti-corruption movement, and connected with Delhi’s middle classes by positioning itself as an anti-political force. It cashed in on a general disgust with self-serving career politicians. Once in power, it built a formidable support base on the back of welfare initiatives in school education, health, electricity, water supply, and free bus rides for women.

Now, after nearly a decade in power, it has been voted out. The BJP is back in power at the assembly level in Delhi after a gap of 26 years. It won 48 seats while AAP’s seat share plummeted from 62 to 22 seats. Analysts have blamed anti-incumbency and the AAP’s governance failure for its loss. They have also blamed the corruption allegations against Kejriwal, his excessive spending on the Chief Minister’s official residence, the alleged liquor scam, and so on.

But some basic questions remain: Did the AAP lose because the BJP out-promised it on the welfare front? On the corruption aspect: did it lose because it was perceived as more corrupt than its rivals, or because it is held to a higher stand of probity given its provenance in anti-corruption movement? Does the AAP really need an ideological core if it needs to survive, as some are arguing? And what does this outcome mean for the ‘alternative politics’ that the AAP had promised?

Guest: Professor KK Kailash from the Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad.

Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu.

Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian.

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