AAP has an ally, but Kerala could be a long, lonely trek

Kejriwal made the announcement of the People’s Welfare Alliance (PWA) along with Twenty20 chief co-ordinator Sabu M Jacob, who is also the MD of KITEX, at a mass convention held at Kizhakkambalam near Kochi. Kizhakkambalam is the headquarters of the KITEX group as well as of Twenty20.

The AAP, a party that is in power in Delhi and Punjab, realises that Kerala — which has a long history of successful political alliances, mainly the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) — could be a different ball game altogether. The other alliance in the state, the BJP-led NDA, hasn’t quite taken off with the party sharing a strained relationship with its main ally, the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena.

Twenty20 governs four village panchayats in Kerala, including Kizhakkambalam, from where it made its foray into local body politics in 2015. Twenty20 made its Assembly election debut in 2021 from a few constituencies in Ernakulam. But then, as it faced allegations of being in the electoral fray as the B-team of the CPI(M), the corporate firm’s outfit came third in six of the eight constituencies where it contested, pushing the BJP to fourth position.

The outfit managed to win a fair share of votes by riding on the goodwill from the KITEX Group’s CSR activities. It also managed to make its presence felt as an attractive option for apolitical voters and a growing middle class that was willing to look beyond traditional political parties.

On the other hand, the AAP is yet to make its presence even at the level of a village panchayat in Kerala. The party had floated its Kerala unit in 2014 and contested a few seats in the Lok Sabha elections of that year. However, the party is yet to come up with an inspiring leadership or a political agenda that would set it apart from existing political parties. In 2020, retired IAS officer P C Cyriac, who was earlier associated with the Church-backed farmers movement INFARM, was made convenor of the state unit of AAP.

In short, the AAP would have to piggyback on the Twenty20 as it attempts to make inroads into the state. But the biggest challenge facing the People’s Welfare Alliance is that, at least for now, its mainstay, the Twenty20, is confined to Ernakulam district and that, too, to a few panchayats.

It’s an uphill battle and Kejriwal knows this only too well. For now, the Twenty20-AAP combine has decided not to fight the May 31 by-election to the Thrikkakara Assembly constituency, choosing to instead focus on the 2024 general elections.

On Sunday, while announcing the alliance, Kejriwal spoke of the achievements and welfare measures of the AAP government in Delhi and said these could be replicated in Kerala as well. “We will have to make an alliance of 130 crore people in the country,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Twenty20 coordinator Jacob targeted the CPI(M) government in Kerala and said the proposed K-Rail project would ruin Kerala. “The state has a government that cannot run a transport bus service profitably. How can such a government run the Rs 62,000-crore K-Rail project,” he said.