Despite the tall claims of marking victory in elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has entirely failed to establish itself in Haryana. The party is continuously facing massive blows regularly for the last few months in the state. Amid this, Chairman of the election campaign committee of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Haryana, Ashok Tanwar who had joined the party on 4 April 2022 and Before joining AAP, was briefly with the Trinamool Congress. has bid a farewell to the party citing the party’s alignment with Congress after staying in the party for 22 months.
Tanwar cited the unification of AAP-Congress in the INDIA alliance as the reason for his resignation. Although, the close ones of Ashok Tanwar are of the opinion that he was not being heard and given importance within the party for a long time which made him come up with the decision of quitting the party ahead of polls. The party political stint in Haryana has been puzzling as it could not mark its debut in the state which clearly indicates the weakened position of the party in Haryana contrary to Delhi and Punjab. Tanwar’s resignation came as another setback to the AAP as two of the party stalwarts, former minister Nirmal Singh and state unit vice-president Chitra Sarwara, quit the outfit citing personal reasons and joined the Congress later in presence of National party president Mallikarjun Khadge. It is learnt that the leaders quitting the party were being upset with the functioning of the party high command as the National convener and the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal is the sole authority to take final call pertaining to all matters.
Following the resignation of bigwigs namely Nirmal Singh, his daughter Chitra Sarwar and now Ashok Tanwar, the AAP in Haryana is lacking big shots ahead of polls who can woo the voters and get the party political mileage. The AAP was representing itself as an alternative of the Congress in Haryana for a long time but the way big shots are quitting the party ahead of polls , it is not going to be a cakewalk for the partry to bring its golden era in politics of Haryana. Political experts opine, the party has struggled to make its presence felt as caste calculations and equations have defied its development agenda. The party is trying to make considerable headway in setting the mood ahead of polls but things are quite contrary on ground. With the growing anti-incumbency against the BJP regime during its second term and a fractional Congress, the ground appears ripe for a party like AAP but its non-electoral existence of the party emerges as a huge obstacle. Despite Kejriwal being from Haryana, the party failed to prove it mettle in the state. Although, had no qualms about poaching candidates from opposite factions, but it could not lure big shots from Congress and the BJP.
Unlike adjoining Punjab and Delhi, AAP in Haryana failed to emerge victorious even on a single assembly seat after it entered in the state politics and in view of this, the AAP is just an entrant in Haryana struggling to strengthen itself. After forming the government in Delhi and Punjab, the party was hopeful that the party would get significant success in Haryana but failed to repeat the same in Haryana. In the last elections, the fixed deposits of most of the party’s candidates were confiscated and many of the candidates polled fewer votes. Apart from this, in the 2023 Adampur by-election, the party’s candidate managed to get around four thousand votes and had to face fiasco. The party currently does not have any big face in Haryana AAP. Former MP Sushil Gupta, who is among Arvind Kejriwal’s close confidantes and state president, is on toes to establish the party in Haryana but it does not seem a cakewalk for him as well as the party view of the prevailing political scenario.
Notably, Tanwar who belongs to the reserve category and believed to have widespread acceptability among the Dalit community across the stata had joined AAP in April 2022. He had earlier held the responsibility of president of the Haryana Congress and the former Hisar MP quit the Congress in 2019 following a feud with former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.