Admin 
correspondent
New Delhi: With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) racing towards a thumping victory yet again in Delhi, chief minister and party head Arvind Kejriwal has already shown signs of a third attempt at going national. On the morning of counting of votes for the Delhi assembly election, the party head office sported a large hoarding with the message: “Associate with AAP for nation building.”
As part of a massive membership drive, AAP’s social media handles also put out posts which read: “Join the revolution, join AAP.” The party posted phone numbers for people to express their interest in joining AAP. The move is similar to the party’s strategy before the 2014 general elections. In a bid to catapult itself onto the national political stage, AAP had launched a country-wide drive in January 2014 to enrol one crore members.Christened the ‘Main Bhi Aam Aadmi’ campaign, AAP had said people aspiring to join the party across the country could SMS on a toll-free number or give a missed call.
The party, through its political communication, had made sure that only Delhi appears to be their prerogative. No leader from AAP had made any hints of a national political plan before the assembly elections. It was only on the day of counting that AAP shifted gears. However, Kejriwal did pander to the nationalists time and again.AAP’s manifesto for the 2020 elections has promised a “deshbhakti” curriculum.In an interview to Times of India, Kejriwal on February 6 said, “Gandhiji had said a student who comes out of school or college should have three qualities — he should be a good human being, be capable of earning for his family and should be a hard-core nationalist.
We started the happiness curriculum for making them good human beings, entrepreneurship ‘pet bharne ke liye’ (earning a meal) and ‘deshbhakti’ for making them hard-core nationalists.”If the signs are to be believed, this will be the third time that Kejriwal tries to step into the national political arena.The party had fielded 434 candidates in the 2014 general elections of which four won, all from Punjab.
The party had obtained 2 per cent of all votes cast nationwide and 414 of its candidates forfeited their deposit by failing to secure one-sixth of the vote in the constituencies.The party had pointed out that its funding was limited and there were too many demands for local visits from Kejriwal.
The intention was to field candidates in large numbers to maximise likelihood of recognition as a national party by the Election Commission. Although the party had secured 32.9 per cent of the votes in Delhi assembly election in 2013, it failed to win any seats in the capital city. AAP decided to contest in general elections again in 2019 but this time with certain lessons learnt.
The party fielded candidates on limited seats in some states and on all of the seats of Delhi, Goa and Punjab. In Haryana, the party formed an alliance with Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janata Party to contest on three Lok Sabha constituencies. AAP also decided to support and campaign for CPI(M) in Kerala.
Despite a change in strategy, AAP lost 39 seats of the 40 it had contested from across nine states and Union territories. Apart from general elections, in an attempt to extend the party’s dominance beyond Delhi, AAP also contested assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Maharashtra and Haryana.
The party had contested in 2017 Goa assembly elections and lost all the seats and failed to save deposits of 38 out of 39 seats in Goa on which its candidates contest For 2017 Punjab assembly election, the Lok Insaaf Party had allied with the AAP. They won 22 seats in total, two of which were won by the Lok Insaaf Party and the other 20 by AAP.
For the 2019 Haryana and Maharashtra elections, AAP got fewer votes than those cast in favour of NOTA and lost all 70 seats it had contested in the two states. AAP had fielded candidates in 46 of the 90 seats in Haryana, while in Maharashtra, it had contested 24 seats. The AAP had formed an alliance with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls held in April-May, but after a crushing defeat, it had called off the tie-up.
Enter the text or HTML code here
