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Among the losses the AAP suffered in the recent past are a Jat leader (Kailash Gahlot) and two Dalit faces (Rajendra Pal Gautam and Raaj Kumar Anand) apart from a Gujjar (Kartar Singh Tanwar)
The setbacks to AAP come at a time the city is gearing up for assembly elections, which are expected around January-February. (PTI)
Switching sides has been a practice in political parties for ages that becomes more prominent around election time and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is no different.
On Sunday, party leader Kailash Gahlot quit his cabinet post and the AAP. The party was not surprised but said Gahlot was under pressure from the BJP as he was facing investigations from central agencies.
In April 2024, then cabinet minister Raaj Kumar Anand had resigned from the party and cabinet amid allegations of corruption.
The AAP, on Anand’s exit too, had said he was under pressure from investigative agencies. Anand first went to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in May and, weeks later, joined the BJP in July. The same day in July, AAP’s Chhatarpur MLA Kartar Singh Tanwar also joined the saffron party.
Joining the list was Dalit leader Rajendra Pal Gautam who was a cabinet minister in Delhi. Gautam resigned from the cabinet in October 2022 amid allegations of attending a mass conversion event. In September 2024, he left the party and joined the Congress.
Another name that jumped ship was that of Kapil Mishra who was removed from his post in 2017, making way for Gahlot and Gautam in the cabinet. Mishra moved to BJP and is currently the vice-president of the state unit. Anand had got space in the cabinet after Gautam resigned.
Among the losses the AAP suffered in the recent past are a Jat leader (Gahlot) and two Dalit faces (Gautam and Anand) apart from a Gujjar (Tanwar). Also, all these were sitting MLAs of AAP, some registering a victory two-three times.
Among the list of blows to AAP is also its Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal who although has not quit the party but has turned vocal against it, highlighting its failures and inability to fulfil promises, similar to what Gahlot wrote in his resignation.
The setbacks to AAP come at a time the city is gearing up for assembly elections. The term of the current assembly ends in February 2025 and the elections are likely to be held around January-February.
The AAP will aim for a third complete term after its back-to-back landslide victories in 2015 and 2020 when the party bagged more than 60 seats out of 70 in Delhi assembly.
On the other hand, the BJP, which has been out of power in the city since 1998, will also try hard to win the city back.
While the decision of its MLAs and ministers to switch sides may damage the party’s prospects in the 2025 polls, the party is busy celebrating the arrival of BJP leaders into its fold.
On Sunday, prominent Purvanchali leader and two-time MLA from Delhi’s Kirari constituency Anil Jha joined the AAP. Kejriwal welcomed him into the party, carefully avoiding speaking about Gahlot while addressing the media. While Gahlot is yet to announce his next move, AAP is confident that he will switch sides to BJP.
Earlier this month, three-time South Delhi MLA Brahm Singh Tanwar and former Laxmi Nagar councillor BB Tyagi also joined the AAP from BJP.
