Assembly elections are due in Delhi in January next year and before that the party is facing a big challenge to keep its vote united. Despite its alliance with Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, its account was not opened and despite the atmosphere being good in Haryana, its only candidate lost the election. Despite having a government in Punjab, the party got only three seats. It is believed that the two strongest vote bases standing with the Aam Aadmi Party, i.e. Muslims and Dalits, are unhappy and both are looking for alternatives. If both these groups leave them, then they may have to face great difficulty in next year’s elections.
Recently, a big Dalit leader of his party, Rajendra Pal Gautam, has joined Congress. He was removed from the post of minister some two years ago. Since then, he was angry. Before joining Congress, he resigned from AAP and raised questions on the party’s policies in a letter addressed to Arvind Kejriwal. Before him, another Dalit leader and former minister Rajkumar Anand had also left AAP and joined Bahujan Samaj Party. But now he has joined BJP. After the departure of two big Dalit faces, AAP is left with Kuldeep Kumar, whom the party had fielded from East Delhi seat in the Lok Sabha elections this time. He lost. The other leader is Rakhi Bidlan, who is the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.