The party came into existence following a difference of opinion between Kejriwal and activist Anna Hazare regarding the incorporation of electoral politics into the popular 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, which had been demanding a Jan Lokpal Bill since 2011.[29] Hazare preferred the movement should remain politically unaligned, whereas Kejriwal felt the failure of the agitation route necessitated changes in the government's representation itself.[29] On 3 December 2015, the Jan Lokpal Bill was passed by the AAP government with a majority in the Delhi legislative assembly.[30][31]
Anna Hazare, Anupam Kher, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas during the Jan Lokpal Bill movement
Massive anti-corruption protests and strikes in 2011 were initiated by a well known social activist Anna Hazare in response to exposure of unprecedented financial scams and corruption by erstwhile UPA government. The aim was to press the government to enact a strong and effective Lokpal (Federal Ombudsman) through a Jan Lokpal Bill.[43] Hazare was supported by a clutch of activists and professionals which became popularly known as Team Anna. Team Anna also included a civil-servant turned activist Arvind Kejriwal.[44][45] Hazare had wanted to keep the movement politically neutral but Kejriwal considered that direct involvement in politics was necessary because attempts to obtain progress regarding the Jan Lokpal Bill through talks with existing political parties had, in his opinion, achieved nothing. A survey conducted on a Facebook page that purported to be operated by India Against Corruption[46] and other social networking services had indicated that there was wide support for politicisation.[47][48] Hazare rejected the poll, saying "elections require huge funds, which will be tough for activists to organise without compromising on their values". He also said it would be difficult to ensure that candidates are not corrupted once elected.[49][50] Hazare and Kejriwal agreed on 19 September 2012 that their differences regarding a role in politics were irreconcilable. Kejriwal had support from some anti-corruption movement activists, such as Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan, but was opposed by others such as Kiran Bedi and Santosh Hegde. On 2 October,[51] Kejriwal announced that he was forming a political party and that he intended the formal launch to be on 26 November, coinciding with the anniversary of India's adoption of its Constitution in 1949.[47][48]
The party's name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi (transl. common man), whose interests Kejriwal proposed to represent. A party constitution was adopted on 24 November 2012, when a National Council comprising 320 people and a National Executive of 23 were also formed. Both the Council and the Executive were expected to have more members in due course, with the intention being that all districts and all classes of people would have a voice.[48] Various committees were proposed to be formed to draft proposals for adoption by the party in a process that was expected to take several months. Although one aim was to limit nepotism, there were complaints at this initial meeting that the selection of people invited to attend was itself an example of such practices.[52] The party was formally launched in Delhi on 26 November[53] and in March 2013, it was registered as a political party by the Election Commission of India.[54][a]
Funding
On 26 November 2012, the formal launch day of the AAP, former law minister Shanti Bhushan donated ₹10 million (US$130,000) to the party. Prashant Bhushan, his son, was a member of the party's National Executive Committee.[56] The party raised ₹20 crore (US$2.5 million) by November 2013 and received ₹18 crore (US$2.3 million) in 2015 assembly polls.[57]
Initial period
On 18 May 2013, a group of Indian Americans from 20 different cities in the US held a convention in Chicago and extended support to the AAP. The convention was attended by two AAP leaders, Kumar Vishwas and Yogendra Yadav, and Kejriwal addressed it via video conferencing.[58]Aruna Roy and Medha Patkar, who had differences with Kejriwal on certain issues, supported him after his 15-day fast against inflated electricity bills.[59]
Two of the founders of the party, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, left the Aam Aadmi Party and formed Swaraj Abhiyan.[62]
Protests
On 23 March 2013, Kejriwal began an indefinite fast in an attempt to mobilise people against inflated power and electricity bills at a house in Sundar Nagri, a low-income group resettlement colony in North-East Delhi.[63] During the protest, he urged Delhi citizens not to pay "inflated" water and electricity bills.[64] The AAP also demanded an audit of power and electricity supply in Delhi by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, something that was also supported by civil society groups like the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM).[65] The AAP claimed that the protest gathered support from 100,000 people in Delhi on a single day and more than 300,000 people up to 28 March 2013.[66] Anna Hazare urged Kejriwal to end the fast on 29 March and he did so on 6 April.[59]
On 10 June 2013, Kejriwal supported agitation by Delhi auto rickshaw drivers, who were protesting the Delhi government's ban on advertisements on auto rickshaws. Kejriwal claimed the government's ban was because the drivers supported his party and carried AAP's advertisements on their vehicles. He said that the AAP would put 10,000 advertisements on auto rickshaws as a protest.[67] In retrospect, after Kejriwal had been elected and then resigned his position, a union representing the drivers expressed dissatisfaction, saying: "Arvind Kejriwal, who had won the elections because of the support of the auto drivers, has betrayed them by not fulfilling any of the promises made before the elections".[68]
On 22 April 2015, the AAP organised a rally in Delhi against a land acquisition bill.[69]
At the time of formation, the AAP said that the promise of equality and justice that forms a part of the Constitution of India and of its preamble has not been fulfilled and that the Independence of India has replaced enslavement to an oppressive foreign power with that to a political elite. It claimed that the common people of India remain unheard and unseen except when it suits politicians. The AAP's goal is to reverse the way that government accountability operates, and the party takes an interpretation of the Gandhian socialist concept of swaraj as a tenet. It believes that through swaraj, the government will be directly accountable to the people instead of higher officials. The swaraj model lays stress on self-governance, community building, and decentralization.[70][71]
Kejriwal has stated that the AAP refuses to be guided by ideologies and that they are entering politics to change the system, saying, "We are common men. If we find our solution in the left, we are happy to borrow it from there. If we find our solution in the right, we are happy to borrow it from there."[72] Kejriwal has put forward 3 pillars of Aam Aadmi Party's core ideology: staunch patriotism, staunch honesty and humanity.[73]
During AAP government's tenure, Delhi has replaced Bengaluru as the start-up capital of India.[77] The AAP government has facilitated various start-up policies in Delhi from time to time during its tenure.[78]
Organisation
The party leadership consists of the following bodies:
The party's National Executive Committee had 34 members in 2022.[81]
State Leadership
The AAP has state wings in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram[82],Punjab, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
The 2013 Delhi state assembly elections were the party's first electoral contest. The Election Commission approved the symbol of a broom for use by the AAP in that campaign.[89] The party said that its candidates were honest and had been screened for potential criminal backgrounds.[90] It published its central manifesto on 20 November 2013, promising to implement the Jan Lokpal Bill within 15 days of coming to power.[91]
In November 2013, a sting operation conducted by Media Sarkar alleged that several leaders of the AAP, including Kumar Vishwas and Shazia Ilmi, had agreed to extend their support to some people seeking assistance with land deals and other financial arrangements in return for donations in cash to the AAP.[92] Ilmi offered to withdraw her candidature as a result, but the party refused to accept her offer, describing the footage as fabricated and a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.[93] The Election Commission ordered an inquiry regarding the legitimacy of the video.[94][clarification needed]
The AAP emerged as the second-largest party in Delhi, winning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats; the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the largest party, won 31, while its ally Shiromani Akali Dal, won 1; Indian National Congress won 8, and two were won by others.[95][96] On 28 December 2013, the AAP formed a minority government in the hung Assembly, with what Sheila Dikshit describes as "not unconditional" support from Indian National Congress.[97] Kejriwal became the second-youngest Chief Minister of Delhi.[98] As a result of the Delhi elections, the AAP became a recognised state party in Delhi.[99]
The AAP fielded 434 candidates in the 2014 Indian general election, in which it did not expect to do well. It recognised that its support was based primarily in urban areas and that different strategies might be required for different regions of the country. The party pointed out that its funding was limited and that there were too many demands for local visits from Kejriwal. The intention was to field candidates in large numbers to maximise the likelihood of recognition as a national party by the Election Commission.[100][101] The outcome was that four AAP candidates won, all from Punjab.[102] Consequently, the AAP became a recognised state party in Punjab.[103] The party obtained 2% of all votes cast nationwide and 414 of its candidates forfeited their deposit by failing to secure one-sixth of the vote in their constituencies.[104] Although the party secured 32.9 per cent of the votes in Delhi, it failed to win any seats there.[105]
AAP convenor, Arvind Kejriwal fought from Varanasi against BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, but lost by a margin of 371,784 (20.30%) votes and came second ahead of BSP, Congress, SP.[106]
Immediately after the elections, Shazia Ilmi (PAC member) resigned from the party.[107] The National Executive member Yogendra Yadav in a letter to his party members criticised Kejriwal's style of leadership.[108]
After the National Executive meeting on 8 June, the party and Kejriwal acknowledged these differences and announced the launch of "Mission Vistar" (Mission Expand), to include more people in local as well as national decision making.[109]
The Delhi state assembly elections for the Sixth Legislative Assembly of Delhi were held on 7 February 2015, as declared by the Election Commission of India.[110] The Aam Aadmi Party scored a landslide victory by winning a majority of 67 of the 70 seats. The BJP was able to win 3 seats and the Congress party saw all its candidates lose.[111] Kejriwal became the Chief Minister for the second time.[112] The AAP had started campaigning in Delhi in November 2014 and declared candidates for all 70 seats.[113]
During the campaign, Kejriwal claimed that the BJP had been trying to bribe AAP volunteers. He asked Delhi voters to not deny the bribes offered to them. He suggested that voters should accept the bribe from others and yet vote for AAP through the secret ballot in the election.[114] The situation caused the Election Commission of India to instruct Kejriwal to desist from breaking laws governing the model code of conduct for elections in India,[115] but the Delhi court then allowed Kejriwal to challenge this.[116]
Major differences surfaced within the party leadership soon after its victory. It created deep fissures between the founding members who had together championed the anti-corruption movement. Problems emerged in February 2015 when Yogendra Yadav and Prashanth Bhushan wrote a joint letter to the National Executive, highlighting Kejriwal's tendency to unilateral decision-making, which they alleged had compromised the party's core principle of Swaraj.[119] After continued allegations, counter-allegations and several failed attempts at reconciliation between the two sides, Yadav and Bhushan were first removed from the PAC and later from the National Executive after the party's National Council passed a resolution to expel them for their alleged anti-party activities.[120][121][122] Party leaders refuted accusations made by Yadav and Bhushan at the meeting that the party was murdering democracy and resorting to intimidation.[123][124] In April 2015, Yadav, Bhushan, Anand Kumar, and Ajit Jha were removed from the party.[125]
For the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, the Lok Insaaf Party allied with the AAP. This alliance was called the AAP Alliance and was represented on news channels as AAP+. It won 22 seats in total, two of which were won by the Lok Insaaf Party and the other twenty by the AAP.[127]
Voting for the Delhi Assembly elections took place on 8 February 2020, following vehement campaigns run by the major political parties contesting the election.[134] The counting of votes and subsequent announcement of results happened on 11 February.[134]
The Aam Aadmi Party retained the government as the party won 62 out of 70 seats.[36][135]Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time. The party's vote share was 53.5%, according to the results.[136]
2021 Chandigarh elections
The AAP contested in 2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election for the first time, won 14 seats and became the single largest party in the council of total 35 elected seats.[137] Sitting mayor Ravi Kant Sharma from BJP lost his seat to AAP candidate Damanpreet Singh.[138][139] In ward number 21, former mayor and BJP candidate Davesh Moudgil was defeated by AAP's Jasbir.[139]
An Insignificant Man is a 2017 Hindi/English Indian socio-political documentary co-produced and directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla and also co-produced by filmmaker Anand Gandhi.[141][142] The documentary is about the rise of anti-corruption protests in India and the formation and rise to power of the Aam Aadmi Party.[143]
^"On the Verge of Extinction". Economic & Political Weekly. 50 (8). 21 February 2015. Archived from the original on 18 August 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
^"Party-wise Winning Candidates"(PDF). Delhi Assembly Elections – 2015. Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi. Archived(PDF) from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
^Anand, Jatin; Sriram, Jayant (28 March 2015). "Yadav, Bhushan shown the door". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
Sharma, Prashant (2014). "From India Against Corruption to the Aam Admi Party: Social Movements, Political Parties and Citizen Engagement in India". Political Parties and Citizen Movements in Asia and Europe(PDF). Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), Hanns Seidel Foundation, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). pp. 38–59. ISBN978-9187729713. Archived(PDF) from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
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