AAP-ology of a party?

Hyderabad: The  Aam Aadmi Party, which was touted to be the revolution that India needed, has completely failed in Delhi and the effects are being seen here in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Back when Arvind Kejriwal was still building the foundation for the party, it was the volunteers, members and workers from here who strengthened the roots in the capital. Hundreds of volunteers, who travelled to campaign in Delhi, are now breaking away from the party, moving on to other parties and even forming new fronts.

C. Vinod Kumar, a young techie who had enthusiastically spoken about his experience of campaigning in Delhi just a few months ago, is today completely broken by the lack of structure. “I personally am against the whole drama in Delhi. What was the need for Kejriwal to say no to bail? And now the dharna by the workers is affecting the common man. This is against what the party originally stood for,” he points out.

The problems began when Kejriwal decided to resign as the chief minister of Delhi. There were a few voices of disapproval even back then.

“As it is the party has lost credibility. And even for the recent polls, strangers and even criminals were given tickets, despite us submitting proof of their criminal backgrounds,” he adds.

In February 2014, the party here had close to 2 lakh members, but for the recent meeting after the polls, only 5,000 people turned up. “Many are now jumping parties. In Telangana, most have moved to the TRS,” says Vinod, who is also “keeping a distance and will soon take a decision” on if he will continue to work for the party.

Professor Ramesh Reddy of OU, who had a huge hand in the party’s formation even with the suggestion of the name of the party has left.

“What’s happening in Delhi is not good. Looks like all they want to do is to just create a scene. When the opportunity did come, they should have used it instead of stepping aside,” says the professor, who has now gone on to form Telangana Aam Aadmi Front that functions independently of the AAP.

Several other off-shoots have emerged, including the Garib Aam Aadmi, while another off-shoot of Telangana Lok Satta party has also surfaced on the basic tenets of Swaraj.

According to another state co-ordination committee member, A. Hussain, members with social activism and NGO backgrounds are the ones who have stuck on to the party. Speaking for whoever was still with AAP, he says, “We are waiting to take a decision on whether to continue or not. There has been no communication from Delhi so far. As to the activities, we have gone from gatherings of 15,000 members in Telangana region to just 5,000 now after the polls.”

Online, people are now poking fun at Kejriwal’s “honesty”. While one-liners like “What can you expect at Sorry Sabhas? An AAPology” are being circulated, jokes that follow the tagline “Aravind Kejriwal is so honest” are also a hit. One reads, “Kejriwal is so honest that, Sonakshi Sinha never asked him ‘Do I look fat in this?’”