AAP washout: Why Kejriwal failed to pull off a win in home state Haryana
It was over-confidence, reasons Kejriwal; but there were other factors that led to AAP's debacle in Haryana, where it failed to win a single seat
AAP leader and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (October 8) blamed “overconfidence” for his party’s washout in the Haryana Assembly elections, which the BJP spectacularly won.
“The biggest lesson of (Haryana) is that one should never be overconfident in the elections," Kejriwal told a gathering of AAP municipal councillors in Delhi. "No election should be taken lightly,” he added. “Each election, each seat is tough.”
AAP’s weak spots
Kejriwal spoke as the vote count from Haryana showed that the BJP was poised to retain power in the state, stunning the Congress, which had hoped for an easy win in the state.
Also read: A repeat of 'Gujarat formula' does the trick for BJP in Haryana
AAP sources quoted by media reports said the party had no face to project as chief minister and, unlike the BJP and the Congress, also lacked an organisational structure in Haryana.
Eventually, as the state polarised between the BJP and the Congress, the AAP got squeezed out.
No Kejriwal magic
Whatever support the AAP enjoyed in Haryana was in the urban areas, leaving the vast rural region out of its reach.
Thanks to the shortcomings, Kejriwal could not repeat its Delhi magic in Haryana although he hails from and is widely known in the state.
Also read | Haryana polls: 4 factors that may have upset Congress’s apple cart
Kejriwal led a high-pitched but short campaign for the AAP, which contested 89 of the 90 seats in Haryana, after failing to reach an alliance with the Congress. Kejriwal’s first roadshow in Haryana was on September 20, less than three weeks before the elections. BJP and Congress top guns started their campaign much earlier.
Kejriwal had, during the campaign, claimed that no government would be formed in the state without the AAP's support. But by afternoon, the AAP, which rules Delhi and Punjab, had managed just 1.53 per cent of the votes, Election Commission data showed. The BJP sailed past the midway mark all by itself.
AAP’s earlier losses
The AAP had contested 46 seats in Haryana in 2019 and lost all of them, winning a lower vote share than NOTA.
It also failed to win the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat in the state which it contested in alliance with the Congress earlier this year.