Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has rolled up its sleeves for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, but have surprisingly kept aloof from the bypoll politics. On expected lines, party’s State president Elvis Gomes has thrown himself in the ring for the South Goa parliamentary seat, and general secretary Pradeep Padgaonkar is the candidate for the North Goa seat. While the party gears up to go into campaign mode, it has surprisingly ignored the three bypoll constituencies where the state’s political fortunes are at stake.
If we may recall, AAP after having tasted resounding success in Delhi under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, was the cynosure of all eyes in Goa. The February 2017 poll was a litmus test for the party’s model in the State. They contested 39 out of the 40 assembly seats and had a head start in campaigning, much before other parties could even decide on their candidates. With limited resources at hand, volunteers had spread across nooks and corners of villages, sweating it out and catching the eye of the Goan electorate. But the result came as a huge setback with people rejecting all AAP candidates with the party drawing a blank.
Cut to the present and a golden opportunity offered itself on a platter with a huge wave of public resentment in the background. The government is fighting with its back to the wall and trying every stunt for survival. Majority of the cabinet members are against dissolution for the fear that a re-election at this juncture remains uncertain for them. Not only are the coalition partners split in these three bypoll constituencies, but even the voters too. The U-turn taken by Subhash Shirodkar in Shiroda and Dayanand Sopte in Mandrem has not been accepted by the electorate. Moreover, the rebel BJP leaders who represented the party in these areas remain isolated and could change the equation further.
AAP couldn’t ask for a better platform to re-test its election model. A win at the bypoll could have not only given the party a welcome break, but more importantly, would have signalled a resurgence, since it has till now failed to score in Goa. There is no political prudence in staying away and remaining a mute spectator at the bypoll under these conditions only reflects a lack of confidence in itself.
In a best case scenario, AAP should have gone all guns blazing in these three constituencies, just the way they went all out at the 2017 assembly poll. The conditions were ideal and the arena was limited. With a different party ruling at the Centre, the logic of ushering in development with a parliamentary seat will remain as vague as a shadow. The development plank which the AAP is raising at the LS poll will fall flat.
