Significantly, one of the first acts of the AAP government, after winning a landslide verdict in Punjab, was to open a hotline asking people to report any official asking for a bribe, and if possible to record it on audio or video. This was very much in line with Delhi’s much-vaunted transparent and clean governance model. By sacking the minister, the party tried to send a clear message that business would not be business as usual. It also establishes Mann’s leadership within the party.

The incident, rare in the murky world of politics that is driven by the power of money, draws attention to the “exception” of the AAP. A decade-old party with a checkered career, the party’s exceptionalism lies in its very origin and existence, as well as in the way it conducts its alternative political mode based on direct communication with people via social media. The party owes its inception to the “holy” Anna Hazare, who led India against the anti-corruption movement, which had received considerable support from the rising urban middle classes in India, making the party a party of the middle class – a rarity in recent India. It was also a very original party in the sense that it did not emerge as a split from an existing party nor was it formed by a powerful political leader leaving his parent party. The party also does not fit into one of the neat categories: national/regional; secular/religious; radical/conservative. More importantly, despite its transition to an electoralist party, it has not attempted to overtly employ identity politics of social alignment or invoke cleavages to obtain an electoral dividend as most parties do. Moreover, the party has never stated a clear ideological position on the issues.

Emerging as an anti-establishment party, the AAP initially placed full emphasis on fighting high-level corruption as the party’s central agenda. He attacked other mainstream parties and ridiculed their leaders as corrupt and acting at the behest of the corporate sector. Even elected and unelected institutions have been attacked for being compromised and failing to hold government to account. During the period, however, the party, after remaining in power for nearly a decade, softened considerably in its style of doing politics and its political language. It came under a people-centred leadership, renouncing any pretense of having a strong political culture of dialogue and contestation after the Delhi victory in 2015. More than stressing the issue of corruption, the Delhi party now seeks to vote on behalf of its success in bringing about reforms in primary sectors like education and health. It also relies on populism in the form of free electricity and clean water for the underclass. Through these measures, he managed to broaden his base of support among the lower classes, but significantly lost support from the tax-paying middle classes.

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Flaunting its Delhi model of governance, the party waged its 2022 campaign in Punjab on three issues: rooting out corruption and freeing the state from the clutches of mafias, tackling the menace of drugs, and improving the condition of hospitals and schools. Moreover, the party also promised handouts despite the precarious state of the economy. Arguably, it was the promise to clean up the utterly corrupt state system that carried the party to power as voters desperately sought a credible alternative to drive out the entrenched political class belonging to the parties hitherto in power, allegedly complicit in the class action. plundering the treasury and bringing the once prosperous state of India to the brink of social and economic disaster. That the party won despite its inherent organizational weakness, lack of resources, and absence of leadership at the state level speaks to the role of the anti-incumbent factor.

The party’s public action will win kudos, but in the long term, a systematic and calm effort is needed to eradicate corruption. It is like fighting against the system itself because there has long been a connection between the bureaucracy, the political class and the criminal elements. What works in the AAP’s favor is its broad mandate, which not only gives the government popular support, but also protects it from imminent danger of defection.

The author is Professor, Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh