After Punjab, AAP looks to strengthen base in Haryana

Geetanjali Gayatri

Chandigarh, March 10

The Aam Aadmi Party’s thumping win in the Punjab Assembly elections is likely to impact the way politics plays out in Haryana in the months ahead.

With the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP alliance already halfway through its term, sources said the AAP would try to make inroads into Haryana and build a base before the next Assembly elections in the state in 2024. Though the party is still struggling to get a foothold in Haryana, buoyed by the Punjab results, the party’s next stopover could be Haryana where it has, so far, been kept at an arm’s length by the voters.

While the results of the Punjab poll have caused a stir, Haryana’s political circles are already abuzz with names of “sore” leaders who could switch sides and join the AAP ahead of the next elections.

Though, traditionally, Haryana votes along caste lines and is divided sharply between the Jats and non-Jats, and the AAP does not “fit the bill”, sources said the “Punjab experiment of neutrality” could be replicated in the state to woo voters.

The party’s convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, from Bhiwani, spares no chance to “market” himself as a “son of the soil”, but it has failed to find any favour with the voters who have remained committed to voting along the caste-lines pattern.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with its non-Jat vote bank and the Congress with its factionalism have reason to watch the AAP’s march in Punjab closely, their leaders are not particularly perturbed about the AAP’s grand show. It may be recalled that the AAP and the JJP had entered into a seat-sharing alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll and had contested the election together, but it soon fizzled out. In the Assembly elections in 2019, the party had fielded candidates, but none of them won.

Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the results in Punjab would have no bearing on the politics of the state. “Haryana is surrounded by Delhi on three sides. If Kejriwal could not encash on that, winning Punjab is unlikely to be his passport into Haryana. Last time, the party contested from Haryana, its candidates could not even save their deposits. There is no place for AAP in Haryana since all states are different,” he stated.

BJP’s state president OP Dhankar said he does not consider AAP win in Punjab significant. “Basically, the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal lost. The voters rejected them completely and the AAP stepped into that vacuum. That is all there is to this win. The AAP has no base in Haryana, no matter how much Kejriwal markets himself as a Haryanavi. There is no vacuum in our state that the AAP can step into,” he said.

Dhankar, however, added that the BJP’s win in the Assembly elections whose results were declared today will positively impact the party’s chances in Haryana. “The convincing win across states proves that the leadership, its policies and programmes find acceptance. This will lead to a larger support base for us,” he added.

Experiment with neutrality

Sources say though Haryana traditionally votes along caste lines and is divided sharply between Jats and non-Jats, and the AAP does not ‘fit the bill’, the ‘Punjab experiment with neutrality’ could be replicated in the state to woo voters.

Filled vacuum left by cong

I do not consider the AAP win in Punjab significant. Basically, Congress and SAD lost. The voters rejected them completely and the AAP stepped into that vacuum. That is all to this win. OP Dhankar, BJP state president