In the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to be entangled in its own web in Delhi. This time, the Aam Aadmi Party does not seem as confident in the Delhi Assembly elections as it did in the last two Assembly elections. One of the big reasons for this is the suicidal step taken by AAP during the Lok Sabha elections of forging alliance with the Congress party.
Arvind Kejriwal was highly upset because in Delhi the AAP failed to open its account in NCT of Delhi in two consecutive LS elections of 2014 and 2019. This penetrated Kejriwal and the AAP more as it happened even though the AAP had won more seats than expected in two consecutive Assembly elections of 2015 and 2020. In order to strengthen himself, Kejriwal formed an alliance with the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha elections in the NCT of Delhi. But that alliance of the Lok Sabha now seems to be a bone in the throat for Kejriwal himself.
In the last Lok Sabha election in the NCT of Delhi the Congress Party and AAP y contested on three and four seats respectively under the alliance. Although both of the two parties failed to open their account. But in the entire process the Congress Party got a big boost and got a new lease of life in Delhi politics due to Kejriwal’s political handling.
The Congress played its cards consciously with long term vision and within the alliance, the Congress party took from AAP only those Lok Sabha seats to contest which had Muslim majority Assembly seats. The Congress party performed better than expected on these Muslim dominated Assembly seats. As a consequence, the Congress party seems to be moving towards bringing its former Muslim voters in its kitty. These Muslim votes in bulk to the Congress party and this had infused new energy to the Congress party.
As per the alliance with the AAP, the Congress party contested the LS seats of Chandni Chowk, Delhi Northeast and Delhi Northwest. The Congress party remained ahead in the Muslim dominated Assembly seats of Chandni Chowk, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Seelampur, Babarpur, Mustafabad and some other Muslim dominated Assembly seats falling under these LS seats. This makes it clear that the Muslim voters who were voting for the AAP instead of Congress in Delhi in recent times, have now started returning to the Congress party fold again.
Not only that but in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the Aam Aadmi Party got a lead in 10 Assembly seats while the Congress party also managed to take a lead in 8 seats almost equal to AAP. The Congress party gave stiff competition to the AAP even on taking lead on Assembly seats in LS election too. The Congress party, which could not even open its account in Delhi in the last two Assembly elections, is now seen returning to the main competition due to this political move of the AAP.
In the past too and in many States such political maneuvering of the parties have given life to some political parties. The step taken by AAP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi was similar to the one taken by Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Assembly elections in Bihar by forming an alliance with Lalu Yadav’s the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal). As a result, their alliance did succeed in winning the Assembly election and even in forming the government in 2015. But in this process Lalu Yadav’s political rebirth definitely happened due to this move of Nitish Kumar. Now Nitish Kumar and the BJP alliance are being forced to contest the elections with much stronger Lalu Yadav than before Nitish Kumar’s alliance in 2015.
Kanshiram’s BSP formed an alliance with Mulayam Singh Yadav Ii the 1993 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. This alliance brought Mulayam Singh Yadav from the margins of politics to the mainstream and Mulayam Singh Yadav became a strong force in Uttar Pradesh due to this alliance only. There are multiple such examples in Indian politics when one party became strong because of another party and the growing party had to bear the brunt of it in later days.
