In a surprise win, AAP opens account in J&K with Doda, but gets less votes than NOTA overall

Though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) opened its account in the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly with a surprise win on Tuesday, the party stuck to its familiar pattern in the rest of the seats – getting fewer votes than NOTA (None of the Above). AAP candidate Mehraj Malik, a District Development Council member, polled 23,228 votes to beat BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana in the Doda constituency.
Last year too, AAP got less than NOTA in all four States that it contested: Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. This has been the pattern in almost all cases outside Delhi apart from Punjab, where the party came to power in 2022 with a huge mandate, and Gujarat and Goa, where the party opened its account.
In J&K, AAP got only 0.52% of the total vote share while NOTA got 1.48%, according to the Election Commission of India website (as of 5 p.m.). The party fought on seven of the 90 seats.
Meanwhile, in Haryana, the home State of AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the party (1.79%) did slightly better than NOTA (0.38%) but lost all 89 seats it contested and almost all candidates are set to lose their deposits.
Expansion hurdle
The pattern of poor performances raises serious concerns for AAP, which wants to grow into a truly national party and projects itself as an alternative to traditional politics.
Party insiders told The Hindu that multiple factors have contributed to the AAP’s poor show in Assembly elections, including lack of a strong organisation to the booth level, resources, and local leadership.
“Fighting elections is a very expensive affair. We don’t have the resources like the BJP or the Congress to fight elections in different States,” a party leader said, adding that they were hopeful only in about three to five seats in Haryana and the J&K win was a surprise.
Another AAP leader said multiple leaders being arrested in the Delhi excise policy case also prevented the party from going to States with their A-team.
A third party leader reasoned that AAP is still a new party compared to the BJP or the Congress. “Fighting elections helps us in building the organisation and we will continue to do it. That is the only way forward,” he said.