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Why Are Opposition Leaders Mum On AAP's Punjab Win?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-03-12 11:29:02

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

There are many undercurrents flowing concurrently in India politics now. While it is clear that there are parties who are with the BJP and are in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and then there are parties who are against the BJP and the NDA, some of whom are aligned with each other (like the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance that rules Maharashtra, while others are working independently, it is also clear that not all opposition parties are on the same page. Some of these opposition parties have a dream to come together, with or without the Congress (after its recent poor show in five states, maybe without the Congress) to defeat the BJP.

But what happened when one of their comrades-in-arms, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) won a momentous election in Punjab? None of these opposition stalwarts had the courtesy to congratulate Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann for their win. Mamata Banerjee (TMC, Bengal), MK Stalin (DMK,Tamil Nadu), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena, Maharasthra), K Chandrasekhar Rao (TRS, Telangana), Pinarayi Vijayan (CPIM, Kerala) all ignored the AAP win in Punjab. Only Sharad Pawar of NCP congratulated the AAP. This is in stark contrast to the congratulatory messages that poured in when Mamata Banerjee and TMC won in West Bengal. Kejriwal himself was most effusive in his praise of Banerjee then. Does this mean that it is a victory against the BJP that matters and all others are inconsequential? Or is it that they cannot stand AAP's rise in national politics? Is that why they are consciously keeping AAP out of the talks to form a joint front against the BJP?

It are these undercurrents - the one that either pits two opposition parties that have it in them to beat the BJP against each other or the one that makes one or more party jealous of the success of another - that are bad for Indian politics. AAP's victory in Punjab is historic. So what if the BJP was not a serious player in Punjab? An opposition party winning a major state, while strengthening the party that wins, strengthens the hands of the entire opposition. But some opposition leaders have sought to underplay its Punjab achievement by saying that AAP is capable of winning only in states where the BJP is not a serious player, forgetting that it has beaten the BJP twice in Delhi. With its victory in Punjab, AAP has doubled its capacity to take on the BJP in other states. It has already identified Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana as the states where it will make a serious bid in the next elections in those states. The entire opposition should celebrate its Punjab win. 

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