Assembly elections: AAP finds solace in ‘national party’ status

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

New Delhi, December 8

Though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has lost in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, party leaders see a ray of hope in getting the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit a ‘national party’ status.

AAP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, claimed that they had been successful in penetrating into the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s home state, Gujarat. Singh said, “In just 10 years, the AAP has become a national party. Gujarat is the bastion of PM Modi and Amit Shah. Also, the BJP has been in power in Gujarat for 27 years, and intruding that fort was not an easy job.”

In Gujarat, the AAP has been leading in five seats, and its CM face Isudan Gadhvi has lost his own seat.

All the top leaders of the AAP, including from Punjab, had seemingly exerted more efforts in Gujarat then Himachal. AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal had given in written while campaigning that they would form the government in Gujarat.

Singh, commenting on the Kejriwal’s written claim, said, “Amit Shah’s prediction had already gone wrong in 11 states, where the BJP fought elections. In the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP was led by Prime Minister Modi, however, saffron party candidates had lost the security deposit on all the seats there.”

Singh said, “We, all the party leaders and workers, will celebrate today as the party got the tag of national party.”

Meanwhile, AAP leaders were seen shying away from talking about the party’s performance in Himachal Pradesh, where the party couldn’t win even a single seat with a vote share of less than 2 per cent.

National party status

To be a national party, a party has to fulfil any of the three conditions: they should win two per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three different states or it should poll six per cent of the total votes in an Assembly election or they must have four Lok Sabha seats and it should be recognised as a state party in at least four states. Once recognised as a national party, it is entitled to a reserved symbol for its candidates across the country.