Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to meet with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, state ministers, and part-MLAs in Delhi on Tuesday, only days after suffering a crushing defeat in the Delhi assembly election.
The gathering takes place against the backdrop of rumors that the party’s Punjab chapter is experiencing increased internal dissension. However, AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang played it down, calling Tuesday’s meeting a “routine strategy session.” “A party is a continuous process. Feedback from all units are taken to shape its future strategies. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann along with AAP MLAs will meet Arvind Kejriwal to discuss the way forward,” he said.
According to the news agency, which cited party insiders, the meeting’s main topics will be analyzing the outcomes of the Delhi election and formulating plans for the 2027 Punjab assembly election. On February 8, the Bharatiya Janata Party ended the AAP’s ten-year reign in the nation’s capital. The saffron party won 48 seats in the 70-member legislature, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led party only managed 22 seats.
Notably, there is a lot of conjecture that the AAP’s Punjab chapter is dismayed, with several MLAs allegedly dissatisfied with the party’s leadership and maybe looking at alternative possibilities. The AAP won 92 of 117 seats in Punjab’s 2022 assembly election, giving them a resounding victory. Recent events, however, have prompted concerns about an internal divide. Some have even argued that Punjab’s governance is still significantly influenced by the AAP’s leadership in Delhi.
According to a report, there has also been conjecture that Kejriwal is now thinking about taking on a more active role in Punjabi politics. The notion of Kejriwal running from Ludhiana and joining the Punjab government is also being discussed, given the assembly seat there is now unoccupied.
In the Delhi election, Kejriwal lost the New Delhi assembly seat to Parvesh Verma of the BJP. In light of the recent loss in Delhi, some opposition figures have notably predicted a similar “downfall” for the AAP in Punjab. The meeting on Tuesday is even more important because Punjab is currently the only state where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party is in power.
