What hurt the AAP?

● Leaders in jail, tussle with L-G & MCD nightmare

- Mallica Joshi & Jatin Anand New Delhi, February 8

IN APRIL 2024, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia, former health minister Satyendar Jain, communications in-charge Vijay Nair and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh were in jail. The party's toughest electoral battle was just 10 months away.

Saturday's results indicate the missing leadership had a more significant impact on the party than it let on. While Jain was arrested in an alleged money laundering case, the rest were behind bars in the excise policy case being probed by the ED and CBI. All of them were released on bail between August and October. Senior party leaders said that the stints in jail, so close to the elections, was among the key reasons for the AAP being unable to mount the kind of campaign it did in 2015 and 2020. This also led to disgruntlement among councillors, who were frustrated because the MCD functioning had collapsed under the AAP and no work was being done.