Haryana Assembly Polls: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been released from Tihar Jail just ahead of the crucial assembly elections in Haryana. While the opposition parties including Congress were quick to welcome the Supreme Court’s decision, the BJP taunted that the ‘Jail CM’ has now become ‘Bail CM’. While Kejriwal’s release has infused the AAP workers and leaders with a renewed enthusiasm, it has caused tension to its rivals. With the elections approaching, Kejriwal’s focus will now be entirely on the Haryana polls, which could increase the challenges for other political parties.
It may be noted that despite Rahul Gandhi’s eagerness to forge an alliance with the AAP, the Congress could not do it due to opposition from some Haryana leaders and lack of agreement over seat-sharing issue. AAP sensed that Congress is deploying delaying tactics and thus it went ahead to announced candidates on all the 90 seats. AAP and Congress had contested the recent Lok Sabha elections together in Haryana and Delhi but failed to reach an agreement for the Haryana Assembly elections. Now, the AAP is one of the contenders besides regional parties like JJP, INLD and ASP.
Most of the times, voting trends have shown that the AAP ends up eating into the Congress party’s vote share. AAP came to existence opposing the Congress and it has been considered a rival by the Congress leaders. This is one of the reason that Congress leaders did not cede space for AAP in Haryana. In the Haryana Lok Sabha polls, both parties contested together as Congress fielded candidates on 9 seats, and AAP on 1. As a result, BJP lost 5 seats compared to previous elections, securing only 5 seats. Congress, which had failed to win any seats in the 2019 elections, managed to win 5. However, AAP, which contested from Kurukshetra, lost its seat.
In the last 5 years, AAP’s vote share in Haryana has increased. If this trend continues in the upcoming assembly elections, both Congress and BJP could suffer. However, the major dent may be on the Congress party’s side.
It is worth noting that voting for all 90 seats of the Haryana Assembly will take place in a single phase on October 5, and results will be declared on October 8.