The Big Picture: How AAP bolstered BJP's historic win in Gujarat polls while earning 'national party' tag for itself

The Aam Aadmi Party won five seats and secured 13 per cent of the popular vote in Gujarat. While party chief Arvind Kejriwal may have hoped for a better performance following his high-decibel campaign, the results have clear the way for AAP to become a national party. 

During the campaign, the party positioned itself and Kejriwal as the sole challenger of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi respectively. However, the counting of votes on Thursday showed that the party succeeded more in splitting opposition votes and helping the BJP score a historic win. 

It also failed to replace the Congress party as the principal opposition in the state. Despite the AAP cutting into its votes, the Congress still polled 27 per cent votes and won 17 seats. In several constituencies, especially in the Saurashtra region, the AAP seriously hurt the Congress party's prospects as the contest turned three-cornered with BJP succeeding to keep its core voters intact.

However, the AAP did achieve an important feat. The party, now classified as a state party, needed to win at least two seats and 6 per cent of the votes polled in the Gujarat assembly election to earn the status of a national party. It secured much more than that. 

To claim the status of a national party, a political outfit needs to be recognised as a state party in at least four states. Until Thursday's verdict from Gujarat, AAP had been recognised as a state party in Delhi, Punjab and Goa. 

A national party tag will still be a boost for the AAP's national ambition even though it failed to make a big splash in Gujarat. More so, it comes on the back of a spectacular win in the civic body elections in Delhi, where the AAP unseated BJP, winning 134 of the 250 wards of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that went to polls on December 4. The BJP, which had controlled the MCD for 15 long years, could win only 104 wards. 

Riding high on its stupendous victory in Punjab Assembly polls earlier this year, the Kejriwal-led party launched its foray into BJP-ruled Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as part of its national expansion plan. 

It had a rather poor showing in Himachal, where it could poll just about 1 percent of votes and failed to win any seat. Although the AAP fielded its candidates for all Assembly seats in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, it kept its prime focus on PM Modi's home state where it has been able to build a few strongholds in recent years. 

The party gained ground in the BJP-ruled Gujarat after it won 27 seats in the 2021 Surat Municipal Corporation elections. The Congress, which had 36 councillors, lost all the seats in the civic body election. Seeking to expand its footprint, the AAP plans to contest in most of the states going to polls next year. That includes Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The party also plans contest elections in Jammu and Kashmir, likely to be held early next year.

With two state governments and one municipal corporation under its belt, AAP today is clearly the number three party in the country after BJP and the Congress, ahead of all other regional parties. Strategically it is targeting states where the BJP and Congress are locked in a direct contest, and where there is not a lot of clutter to take advantage of a vulnerable grand old party.

(With PTI inputs)