Explained: Will Gujarat Assembly polls be AAP’s ticket to national party status?
Explained: Will Gujarat Assembly polls be AAP’s ticket to national party status?
The Gujarat Assembly Polls, the second phase of voting is currently underway and results will be announced on 8 December, holds great importance for the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Not only is the party aiming to dislodge the 27-year-long reign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the western state, but also join the elite club of eight national parties ahead of the 2024 general elections.
The AAP’s goal of achieving national party status is within striking distance — it needs to get at least six per cent votes in any of these two states and the Kejriwal-led party is hinging its hopes on Gujarat where it has managed to create a base for itself and demonstrated it as well by polling 13.28 per cent votes during the February 2021 civic body elections.
As the high-stakes voting is underway in Gujarat, here’s a better understanding of what exactly is a national party, the benefits of being a national party and how Gujarat could change the fortunes for AAP.
A national party, explained
Before delving into the issue of the benefits of being recognised as a national party, here’s a clear explanation of what exactly it means to be one.
According to the Election Commission (EC), political parties are listed as “national party”, “state party” or “registered (unrecognised) party”. The conditions for being listed as a national or a state party are specified under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
To be a national party, the collective has to fulfils any of the three following conditions: the party should win two per cent of seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three different states or it should poll six per cent of the total votes in an Assembly election in addition to winning four Lok Sabha seats it should be recognised as a state party in at least four states.
As of today, the EC recognises eight outfits as national parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the National People’s Party (NPP).
The NPP became a national party as recently as 2019 when it got recognised as a state party in four Northeast states.
Perks of being a national party
Becoming a national party is more of a status symbol although they do enjoy certain benefits. If recognised as a national party, the outfit is entitled to a reserved symbol for its candidates contesting from across the country. This is very important for a political outfit as a large number of voters in India are illiterate and depend on symbols to identify the party they want. Having a pan-India symbol helps parties reach out to prospective voters.
Besides this very crucial aspect, candidates from a national party require only one proposer to file their nominations. Also, they get dedicated broadcast slots on public broadcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio during the general elections.
A ‘national party’ also gets the benefit of having a maximum of 40 ‘star campaigners’ during a general election.
The ‘national party’ tag also means a government bungalow in New Delhi for its national president and office space at a subsidised rate in the national capital.
AAP’s political journey
Founded in 2012 after the Anna Hazare agitation, called the Lokpal movement, the AAP cut its political teeth in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, emerging as the second largest party and forming the government with the support of Congress. The government resigned in 49 days after it failed to get the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill passed due to lack of Congress support.
Two years later, it hit it out of the park in 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, winning 67 seats out of the total 70. The next stage for the AAP was Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan. However, the national plan went haywire as the AAP lost out in Punjab and Gujarat. In the 2017 Punjab election, the AAP had managed to create a lot of buzz, but was able to win only 20 seats in the 117-member Assembly, with around 24 per cent vote share.
Cut to 2020 and the AAP once again was the people’s choice in Delhi.
The AAP’s expansion took a leap when in 2022 it was able to wrest power away from the Congress in Punjab, winning 92 seats out of the 117 Assembly seats securing an overall vote share of 42.01 per cent.
In August, the AAP’s national ambitions got a further boost when it was recognised as a state party in Goa too after securing two seats in the Goa State Assembly elections, and an overall vote share of 6.77 per cent.
AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal had used the opportunity to congratulate the volunteers and workers for their hard work and also making the outfits one of the “fastest-growing parties in India’s history”.
After Del n Punjab, AAP is now a state recognised party in Goa too. If we get recognised in one more state, we will officially be declared as a “national party”
I congratulate each and every volunteer for their hard work. I thank the people for posing faith in AAP n its ideology pic.twitter.com/7UmsIixF0v
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 9, 2022
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Gujarat’s importance to AAP
AAP’s national party status is just one state away and they hope that Gujarat will turn their dreams into reality. To ensure their best results, the AAP has put in all their resources and capabilities into Gujarat.
Political pundits have stated that the Gujarat elections will have a significant bearing on the party’s national expansion plans — especially as the country gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. They have noted that while they have scored wins in Delhi and Punjab, Gujarat is a different situation altogether.
“In the other two states, AAP was challenging an incumbent Congress but in Gujarat it is taking on the BJP, which has been in power for long. It currently does not have a strong organisational presence in the state,” Bhanu M Parmar, professor at the Department of Political Science, Nalini- Arvind & TV Patel Arts College, Anand, told Moneycontrol.
Experts noted that the second-best scenario for the AAP is becoming the principal opposition party, but that too won’t be an easy task. This is because the Congress secured over 41 per cent votes in 2017, and it’s very much present on the ground.
Gujarat is also important for the AAP as it’s the only state where the Kejriwal-led party has a real chance of making any inroads. Consider the upcoming elections ahead of the 2024 national polls: Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland — will have elections next February, while Karnataka in May. Other states — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Mizoram — will go to polls in November-December 2023. As it is, the AAP is barely present in these five states either. It will, however, have one year to prepare.
Telangana will most likely see a two-pronged contest between the BJP and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, leaving little or no space for the AAP. When it comes to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the AAP is barely a presence there.
Hence, Gujarat is where the AAP is most hopeful and are praying that the election gods fulfil their wish of acquiring national party status, cementing Arvind Kejriwal as the frontrunner to being an Opposition face to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With inputs from agencies
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