Has the anti-incumbency pushed the Aam Aadmi Party to a corner and forced it to run for the cover before the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025? The party that is contesting the Delhi Elections alone after rejecting the Congress overtures for an alliance, may find it difficult to sail through to victory in many seats, including those of stalwarts like Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has been running the state of Delhi since 2013 when it came to the power riding on the wave of the Anna Hazare Movement.

After registering three consecutive wins in Delhi Assembly Elections in 2013, 2015 and 2020, the AAP may be riding on the crest of popularity.

APP Is Not Taking Chances

It is also important that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party won 67 seats in 2015 and 63 in 2020 in the 70-member Delhi assembly.

However, the AAP is neither over-confident nor taking any chances considering the fact that many of its MLAs have lost their popularity to a considerable extent.

Then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s margin of victory from New Delhi constituency plummeted from 25,000 in 2015 to just 2,000 in 2020.

Similarly, his deputy Manish Sisodia just managed to sail through in 2020 from Patpargunj.

His margin of victory was just 3,200, though he won the same seat with a difference of 28,700 in 2015 and 11,500 in 2013.

AAP Conducts Door-To-Door Survey

Knowing it well that the party has remained in the power for 15 years and it may face anti-incumbency, the AAP carried out surveys in all 70 constituencies in attempt to gauge the winnability of each of its incumbent MLAs.

The ruling party of Delhi state sent its men to almost every household with questions related to the MLAs’ popularity within the party, their presence in local events and protests, social media presence and relationships with senior leaders and volunteers.

After receiving the feedback and analysing them, the APP retained just 13 old-timers for contesting the Delhi Assembly Elections 2025. All others have been dropped.

AAP Retains Only 13 MLAs

Besides Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain, and Rakhi Birla, Saurabh Bhardwaj Somnath Bharti and Imran Hussain have been chosen to fight the polls for the fourth time. Other MLAs in the select group include Jarnail Singh, Vishesh Ravi, Som Dutt, Sanjeev Jha and Dinesh Mohaniya.

The AAP has taken extra precautions in the case of stalwarts Sisodia and Rakhi Birla as their constituencies have been changed, presumably to skip the heat of anti-incumbency.

Manish Sisodia, Rakhi Birla Shifted

Sisodia has been shifted from Patpargung, after winning from their three times to Jungpura. He was caught in a stiff fight with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ravinder Singh Negi in 2020 and somehow won the poll.

The aggressive stance on corruption allegations taken by the saffron party and the allegations levelled against Sisodia in the Delhi excise case appears to have dented his popularity and credibility, suggest media reports.

The party has fielded UPSC coaching teacher and motivational speaker Avadh Ojha instead from Patpargunj after he joined the party last week.

The AAP hopes to get the massive support from Dalits and Muslims, who have a considerable presence in Jungpura. Besides, the area has a Sikh-Punjanbi, majority, considered to be the support base of the party.

Similarly, Rakhi Birla has been shifted from her home turf of Mangolpuri to Madipur. She was one of the contenders for replacing Arvind Kejriwal as the Chief Minister when he was arrested and put behind bars in the Delhi excise case.

AAP Holds ‘Revdi Per Charcha’

Besides conducting door-to-door surveys and calibrating the electoral strategy accordingly, the AAP has also started holding 200 ‘Revdi Per Charcha’ meetings every day.

Taking the cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s satire “Revdi Ki Rajneeeti”, the party has decided to focus on its politics of freebies openly, hold meetings, get feedback from the masses, deconstruct them and plan accordingly.

The AAP cadres ask the people of their area about the welfare schemes, their operation, problems in implementation and what do they want next.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party has already offered freebies like free electricity up to 200 units, water subsidy, free bus rides for women, pilgrimage programme for elderly people, besides education and healthcare schemes.

The party has claimed that due to these “revdis”, every household saves Rs 6,000-8,000 every month.

Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana

In an attempt to attract women voters, who use their franchise in good numbers, the AAP government has announced the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana. It will give Rs 1,000 to every woman living in Delhi. It will cost Rs. 2,000 crore to the exchaquer annually.

However, Arvind Kejriwal has announced to increase this amount to Rs. 2,100 if the AAP returns to power. Delhi CM Atishi has announced that the first two installments would be disbursed by the end of the current financial year.

The AAP has drastically cut the tickets to its incumbent MLAs, dropping as many as 50 of them. It has rekindled the rhetoric of revdi politics and offered more to the masses.

Will it be able to beat the anti-incumbency by taking these measures?