Its Eternal Cogs

Today, a few friends in Hong Kong and India support his children바카라�s education, he has cut down his needs to the bare minimum and his family, after an initial tussle, has come to terms with Pandey바카라�s decision. And not for a moment has he regretted his rollercoaster ride with AAP. For, from being a darling of the media, the party has been as good as written off by the mainstream media. It바카라�s all over for AAP바카라�khatam바카라�smirk political rivals.

AAP has indeed come a long way from its spectacular ride to national conscio­usness last year. Delhi바카라�s heady brush with Arv­ind Kejriwal바카라�s promise of clean, efficient, corruption-free governance ended in two months, over his version of the Jan Lokpal, for which he wanted all or nothing. Then came the Lok Sabha election바카라� and reality check. The party바카라�s attempt to go national was deemed in retrospect to be premature and rushed: it won just four Lok Sabha seats, out of the many hund­red it contested. It lost all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi, and made a real impression only in Punjab (outside of the high-profile Varanasi contest where Kejriwal earned a hard-fought second place). After this demoralising show, the haemorrhaging started: dissension, desertions, a near-implosion.

Pankaj Gupta, 48, BTech, NIT, Allahabad,. Quit as head of operations, KMG Infotech, Gurgaon, National Secretary, AAP. (Photograph by Sanjay Rawat)

But if you expected the mood at AAP바카라�s Hanuman Road HQ in Delhi to be sombre, far from it. Typical for an idealistic bunch of youngsters, they manage to eke out grounds for optimism바카라�which indeed do exist. For one thing, there바카라�s the fact바카라�a counterintuitive one that most analysts missed in the 바카라�Tsunamo바카라� of May 16바카라�that AAP actually increased its voteshare in Delhi from 29 per cent in December to 33 per cent (compared to the Congress바카라�s 15 per cent). Which means Delhi바카라�s elec­torate didn바카라�t react as negatively as had been portrayed to Kejriwal바카라�s dram­a­tic resignation on an issue of principle.

Expec­tations of a fresh Delhi election have infused fresh life into the system. Some 40-odd volunteers bustle about with sheets of paper, making notes, talking to groups of people, vigorously working on their keyboards. From analysing poll data, planning a fresh strategy, hunting for more volunteers to designing activity charts for existing ones, this is a team that바카라�s put the past firmly behind it.

AAP is back making headlines, alleging that the BJP tried to lure Congress MLAs with bribes of Rs 20 crore each. Left with 28 MLAs in the assembly after three others got elected to the Lok Sabha, the BJP will have to go poaching, engineering a split in AAP or Congress, to have a go at staking claim. Hence the AAP charge that the BJP is more interes­ted in 바카라�poa­ching than polling바카라�. Raising a stink is a way to pre-empt any poaching. Were AAP forced to sit in the oppo­sition for four-and-a-half years, it could lose con­siderable ground바카라�and volunteers.

AAP is indeed staring at an existential crisis. To sustain motivation levels among its volunteers, it needs to hold out the promise of being in the game, of doing well in an election to usher in 바카라�change바카라�. The volunteers Outlook spoke to say they would be with AAP as long as the party remained committed to its version of the Jan Lokpal.

Nandan Mishra, 25,  BTech, IIT-Kanpur, Quit as assistant manager, Citibank, Bangalore, Volunteer, AAP. (Photograph by Tribhuvan Tiwari)

바카라�It바카라�s true many volunteers who joi­ned after the Delhi poll have left,바카라� says Lucknow-born IITian Nandan Mishra. But that바카라�s because their aspirations were not satisfied and they were impatient for power, he argues. He himself is in it for the long haul, he says.

Mayank Gandhi, national executive member, waxes philosophical on the party website. People occupy different levels of human existence, he muses. There are those with an 바카라�I, me, myself바카라� attitude, then those whose 바카라�expanded consciousness바카라� includes friends and family. AAP volunteers like him exist on the third level, he says, where they are 바카라�attentive to the world and its people바카라�. And then the clincher: 바카라�Someone who is at a lower level will never understand one who is more evolved.바카라�

Volunteers have left, but new ones have joined too, claims AAP. There is at least one volunteer manning 85 per cent of the 11,367 booths in Delhi. With 12,000 identified volunteers roping in at least 10 people each across 70 cons­tituencies in Delhi, AAP is convinced its stronger organisation could help it to a clear win in a mid-term poll바카라�if no government is formed by year-end, that is. They are a factor now, AAP believes. An internal survey done by the BJP, it claims, shows they could win as many as 45 seats in the 70-member House in  a fresh election. That is why, they believe, the BJP is so keen to explore 바카라�all options at forming the government바카라�, a euphemism for horse-trading.