We cannot rule out anyone completely, I believe AAP needs to do massive damage control to win any kind of election in near future. The ground reality is that AAP has done almost nothing here in Maharashtra and in Mumbai; earlier at least there were people like Anjali Damania and Mayank Gandhi who kept party in news. There were activities; there was talk and dialogue but these days only Preeti Sharma Menon who is National Executive Member and spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party is doing her possible best but that is not enough to create a ground to win elections. She joined the India Against Corruption movement in 2011 and later on took party reins in hand here. AAP is almost a forgotten party in Mumbai and in Maharashtra it hardly has any existence. On top of that the controversial statements and baseless attacks on central government and Modi only made things worse for them. The party lost its narrative. To reach rest of India, AAP has to show some concrete work as an example just like Modi sold Gujarat model. AAP too had huge opportunity in Delhi and Mumbai with their anti corruption stand but they missed horribly.
The Aam Aadmi Party announced that it would contest the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election due in October 2019. Durgesh Pathak, state in-charge of AAP in Maharashtra, claimed that the Maharashtra government has failed on all fronts. AAP is aiming to provide a viable alternative to the people
of Mumbai. They believe that the Maharashtra state, once known to be to a progressive state, is today plagued with large-scale drought, floods, farmer suicides, agrarian distress, rising unemployment, failing law and order, rising crime, widespread corruption, bureaucratic inertia, lack of service delivery, economic slowdown and the near-collapse of public education. People are aware that the BJP has failed to deliver its promises; Devendra Fadnavis during his election campaign promised pothole free Mumbai. Arresting NCP’s corrupt ministers who were involved in irrigation scams. Rather he shielded corrupts but did not act against any NCP leader, especially Pawars. AAP came into existence because of anti-corruption movement using India against corruption platform.
Due to multiple scams that took place during UPA 2 regime people started to look for credible political alternative and Congress went into fast decline. During the same time far left also lost the credibility as national alternative. With the presence of right wing BJP that had a solid organisation base occupying the political space getting created by decline of Congress, the AAP too was keen to occupy the space, which was getting vacant and created for central party and leftists. However, the AAP lost the steam because of multiple reasons. Some of the factors were not in their control but others because of their own house was not in order.
As of now the regional parties rule states in India are Tamil Nadu (AAP has no appeal and leadership and supporter base here) Seema- Andhra Pradesh (AAP has no appeal and leadership and supporter base here) Telangana (AAP has no appeal and leadership and supporter base here too) Orissa, AAP has no trace. BJP is already taking a position here to be main opposition party and AAP has no appeal and leadership and supporter base here. So in summary AAP is left with only Delhi. They have some chance to be here only in Delhi politics. But New Delhi being Capital of India is a unique state as there is no complete statehood and lot of authority and power will continue in the hand of Central government.
With their fulfillment of promises in Delhi and radical change they provided in work administration of New Delhi has made them strong contenders to the 7 seats in Delhi. Though they didn’t win single seat in 2014 in Delhi, they had a vote share of 32.94 %. This shows their strong presence in the Capital even before their devastating 67/70 in Assembly election 2015. This year with increased manpower, experience and a good team 4–5 seats can be expected by AAP. Other than this party’s increasing fame in Punjab is astonishing. This change and a successful turnout in 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections with 23.80 % vote share can increase the expectations from AAP. Hence 4 or 5 seats can be expected from the Aam Aadmi Party in assembly elections.
If AAP fails this time, then they might end up having the dubious distinction of being one of the shortest-lived political parties in India, to gain and lose people’s mandate so quickly. Arvind Kejriwal, its charismatic leader cleverly exploited the popularity of honest people and sincere organizations to climb up the political ladder only to kick them in the teeth after achieving his objectives. This would be perhaps a last chance for AAP, if they win they would remain in power and if they lose they will not have any near future to return.
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