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Given how well the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has built up the education and health infrastructure in Delhi, where it was voted to power for three terms (once with the Congress) on a secular platform with a voter base that included significant numbers of minorities like Muslims and Christians, it is difficult to fathom why the party has recently taken what seems to be a ‘right’ turn to Hindutva-type politics.
On the one hand, it appears that the party has chosen this route as a strategy to ease itself into Uttar Pradesh (UP), where religious sentiments run high and where the party will contest all 403 assembly seats for the first time early next year.
On the other hand, if UP were to vote on the basis of religion, it seems unlikely that it would vote for a new-to-the-state party like the AAP rather than the deeply entrenched Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its state chief and current chief minister, Adityanath.
But AAP chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s recent visit to Ayodhya, where the Ram Temple that had widened the religious faultlines of the country since the 1980s is located, and his promise to the senior citizens of Delhi of a free pilgrimage to Ayodhya, has delivered the message loud and clear: the AAP has stepped on the Hindutva plank to achieve its political ambitions in the state.
Also read: ‘Soft’ and ‘Hard’ Hindutva: Where Has the Category ‘Communalism’ Gone?
Building a base
In the past few years, Sanjay Singh, the AAP’s member of the Rajya Sabha, has been active in Uttar Pradesh, building a base for his party in the politically significant state. But between the religious and caste dynamics that rule politics in UP, he has been struggling.
Uttar Pradesh already has several established political forces with strong bases and vote banks, such as the ruling BJP, the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party among others.
Sanjay Singh with Akhilesh Yadav (in red cap). Photo: By arrangement
When Singh met SP president Akhilesh Yadav in July 2021, it was speculated that the two parties would tie up for the coming assembly elections. But sources disclose that the deal did not materialise because the AAP had demanded 20 assembly seats and Akhilesh offered it only five seats.
It was after this that Sanjay Singh announced that the AAP would contest all 403 assembly seats and in September, the party declared the names of 100 candidates.
In a bid to expand its outreach among the masses, the party took out a ‘Tiranga Yatra’ (tricolour march) starting from August 14, 2021, in various parts of the state, including Lucknow, Agra and Noida among other cities.
Manish Sisodia, deputy chief minister of Delhi, marched alongside Sanjay Singh in the yatra, which concluded in Ayodhya on September 14 after Sisodia and Singh offered prayers at the Ram Temple.
Manish Sisodia at the Tiranga Yatra. Photo: By arrangement
The next month, October, Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi’s chief minister, visited Ayodhya to offer prayers at the Ram Temple and announced a free pilgrimage to Ayodhya for elderly citizens of Delhi, where the AAP is in power.
All for publicity?
Because it may be difficult to establish the AAP in the large caste-divided state of UP, the party is also looking at the neighbouring small state of Uttarakhand, where soft Hindutva could help it establish itself. On August 17, Kejriwal promised to turn Uttarakhand into the ‘spiritual capital of Hindus’.
In fact, some political observers speculate that the AAP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh may be less about UP itself than about publicising the political message that it has stepped into the right-of-centre space to states like Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab, which are also headed for elections next year. This perhaps is why, when Kejriwal visited Ayodhya this October, he planned no other political activity in the state.
Political observers who had expected the AAP party chief to visit Lakhimpur Kheri, where four farmers, a journalist, and several others were killed after the farmers were allegedly run over by a vehicle in the convoy of Ashish Mishra, the son of Ajay Mishra, the Union minister of state for home, were left surprised.
Also read: In Lakhimpur Kheri, BJP Proves India Has No Rule of Law
“Compared to UP, the AAP has strong prospects in Punjab, where the party already has 16 lawmakers,” says Atul Chandra, former editor of the Times of India’s Lucknow edition. “It is difficult for the party to challenge the political forces that have strong roots in UP’s caste politics,” Chandra adds.
In terms of religious politics, the AAP’s soft Hindutva is likely to lose it Muslims voters, whose community constitutes nearly 19% of the total population of Uttar Pradesh.
Hindutva vs Hindutva
Until this year, the AAP had focused its expansion efforts in states like Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa where the Congress is either in power or is a principal opposition party. According to political analyst Hisam Siddiqi, the AAP has no base in UP but will contest all 403 seats to dent the prospects of the Congress.
Some political observers speculate that AAP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh may be less about UP itself than about publicising the political message that it has stepped into the right-of-centre space. Photo: By arrangement.
But political commentator Mudit Mathur believes that the AAP has more on its mind than merely the Congress.
“The AAP gave permission to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and also abruptly withdrew its campaign against the land purchase scam in Ayodhya, showing that it is dancing to the tunes of the saffron party,” Mathur says.
On the other hand, the AAP has started to intensify its attacks on the ruling BJP as the elections draw closer. According to AAP leader Mahendra Pratap Singh, the BJP “formed the government in the name of Shri Ram, but is following the footprints of Ravan”.
Perhaps the AAP is trying to woo a section of the BJP’s vote bank that may be unhappy with Yogi, suggest political commentators.
The free pilgrimage to Ayodhya, Mahendra Pratap Singh says, is not a new idea, since the Delhi government is already offering free pilgrimages to other religious sites including Amritsar, Ujjain, Shirdi, Jammu, Dwarka, Tirupati, Rameshwaram, Haridwar, Bodh Gaya and so on as part of the Mukhyamantri Teerth Yatra Yojna.
But when asked why similar pilgrimages to their places of worship are not offered to minorities, he refuses to comment. “This is a policy matter which is decided by the top brass of the party,” is all that he says.
Arvind Kejriwal. Photo: By arrangement
Questions of caste
Caste and communalism have played a significant role in UP’s politics, and it will be difficult for a new party like the AAP to overcome this in its debut election, says Mudit Mathur.
However, AAP leaders claim that their party’s base has expanded in the state. In the panchayat polls held early this year, they got nearly 40 lakh votes. Aakash Mishra, leader of the AAP in UP, says that his party is strong enough to contest all the assembly seats of the state. However, he rules out the possibility of an alliance in the future.
The AAP hopes to avoid the issue of caste politics altogether by insisting that it believes in ‘Ram Rajya’ – an ideal state in which there is no caste or religious discrimination.
“We do not believe in caste. The party’s aim is to end caste and communal politics,” Mishra said.
So far, the party has not used caste to its advantage in Uttar Pradesh and has not announced any freebies other than the 300 units of free electricity.