Arvind Kejriwal’s meteoric rise from an anti-corruption crusader to the Chief Minister of Delhi symbolised the aspirations of a new political order in India. His party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), embodied the frustration of the common people against the entrenched political elite.
However, within a decade of its inception, the party has found itself in a crisis of credibility, losing public trust and electoral ground.
The 2025 Delhi Assembly elections marked AAP’s sharpest decline. From 62 seats in 2020, its tally fell to just 22. The very people who had once rallied behind Kejriwal’s vision now felt betrayed.
The story of AAP’s decline is a compelling study of idealism turned into political opportunism, internal discord, and strategic miscalculations.
In 2011, while working at Tehelka.com, I was introduced to Arvind Kejriwal by the Editor-in-Chief, Tarun Tejpal. Kejriwal had resigned as Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department to join the anti-corruption movement. His simplicity was striking.
After our meeting, I intended to escort him to his car, but instead, I walked him to the bus stop. I was both surprised and puzzled.
Here was a man who had held a high-ranking position in the lucrative Income Tax Department, whose wife was also a government officer, yet he could not afford a car and was travelling by bus, enduring the jostles of public transport.
When I looked closely, I noticed he was wearing simple nylon sandals. His frugal lifestyle was a reflection of the ideals he had set out to champion, and in those early days, he appeared to be a man of the people.
When he first became Chief Minister in 2013, I vividly remember visiting the Delhi Secretariat. As I was pulling out my press card to bypass the long queue, I saw Health Minister Satyendar Jain waiting for his turn to enter. Soon after, I saw Rakhi Birla, then Social Welfare Minister, emerging from an auto-rickshaw.
The scene was surreal — ministers standing in queues, waiting for their turn, without any sense of entitlement. The air was thick with optimism, as it seemed that the idea of governance was being redefined. It was a government truly of the people.
Genesis of AAP: A Movement Transformed
The Aam Aadmi Party originated from the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, spearheaded by social activist Anna Hazare. The movement, aimed at eradicating corruption through the Jan Lokpal Bill, gained momentum following successive scams exposed during the second tenure of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II) government.
Rising above ideological differences, activists joined the movement, and Anna Hazare emerged as its central figure. His hunger strike at Jantar Mantar garnered nationwide support, with prominent activists like Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan, and Kiran Bedi participating.
During this period, the opposition BJP, led by L K Advani, was facing consecutive electoral defeats. Consequently, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supported the movement to weaken the Congress and remove it from power.
When Hazare went on a hunger strike in 2011, the backdrop featured the same image of Bharat Mata commonly seen in RSS offices. According to former top AAP leader Manak Gandhi, the RSS headquarters in Nagpur had informally approved support for the movement.
In November 2012, the Aam Aadmi Party was founded. However, in September 2013, when the BJP announced Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, the RSS wholeheartedly backed Modi and distanced itself from AAP, which had emerged from the womb of India Against Corruption.
AAP’s first test came in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections. The party’s grassroots activism and commitment to transparency propelled it to 28 out of 70 seats, forcing Congress and BJP into a political rethink.
AAP's tryst with Congress
Kejriwal formed a government with Congress’s external support but resigned after just 49 days when the Assembly refused to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill. Instead of damaging AAP’s reputation, this move reinforced its image as a party unwilling to compromise on principles.
AAP’s popularity soared in the 2015 Delhi elections, securing a staggering 67 out of 70 seats. Kejriwal’s administration focused on affordable electricity, improved government schools, and the establishment of neighbourhood health clinics. The middle class, which had propelled AAP to power, remained its strongest backer. The party’s success was reaffirmed in 2020 when it won 62 seats.
Yet, the seeds of arrogance were sown within these victories. Gandhi remarked that these consecutive landslides led the party towards overconfidence that eroded its original ideals.
During its initial years, Kejriwal was a leader whom people could approach without barriers. In 2014, he was seen queuing at a tea stall near the Delhi Secretariat, casually chatting with auto-rickshaw drivers. Such images, however, became rare as his government settled into power.
AAP ministers refuse VIP perks
Ministers who once refused VIP perks began using official residences and red beacon cars. The principles of simplicity, which had defined AAP, started to erode. Soon after their 2015 landslide victory, Kejriwal shifted to a five-bedroom government accommodation.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, crores were allegedly spent on Kejriwal’s home renovation, with claims that over ₹5 crore was spent on curtains and carpets alone. Gold-plated taps and jacuzzis replaced the austerity that once defined him.
The party’s internal discord deepened. By 2015, founding members Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were expelled for questioning Kejriwal’s leadership, signalling AAP’s transformation into a personality-driven party.
AAP's expansion beyond Delhi
AAP’s expansion beyond Delhi proved disastrous. In 2014, Kejriwal contested against Narendra Modi in Varanasi but suffered a humiliating defeat. The party’s foray into Goa, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh met similar setbacks. The ambition to replace Congress as the national alternative to BJP lacked an organisational backbone.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, AAP’s promises remained partially fulfilled. While it successfully reduced electricity bills and improved schools, key pledges—such as full statehood for Delhi and legalising unauthorised colonies—remained unfulfilled, partly due to conflicts with the central government.
The cleaning of River Yamuna also proved a pipedream. There is hardly any big infrastructure project in Delhi that Kejriwal can boast. The metro and network of flyovers are all legacies of Sheila Dikshit.
Despite Muslim voters in Delhi voting for him overwhelmingly, they were kept at arms length.
Even today, out of the 22 seats AAP won, 8 were secured solely due to Muslim votes.
No attention to Delhi Minorities Commission
While they handed over the reins of the Delhi Minorities Commission to renowned author and journalist Zafarul Islam Khan, no attention was paid to his reports.
Reports on the social, economic, and educational status of survivors of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the social, economic, and educational status of Muslim women in Northeast Delhi, and issues related to Muslim and Christian cemeteries were tabled in the assembly, but no recommendations were implemented.
Repeated requests to fill vacancies for Urdu teachers were ignored. AAP's silence on the Shaheen Bagh agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the subsequent Delhi riots, and the Uniform Civil Code reinforced the argument that AAP had aligned itself with the BJP's path rather than challenging it.
AAP follows BJP on Muslims
During the Delhi riots, when police arrested their councillor Tahir Hussain as an accused, AAP distanced itself from him instead of supporting him. During COVID-19, when Hindu nationalists targeted the Tablighi Jamaat and its headquarters and mosque in Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin, Kejriwal sided with the troublemakers instead of investigating the matter.
AAP supports BJP on Article 370
The attitude of this party towards Jammu and Kashmir has been nothing short of disrespectful. In August 2019, the party supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in the abrogation of Article 370, the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories, and its integration into the Indian Union.
The BJP did not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha at the time. Had the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a few other regional parties opposed the move, it would have been impossible to pass.
The irony is that while Arvind Kejriwal and his party lamented the lack of autonomy for the Delhi Assembly and his own government, they were complicit in stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and dividing it. This double standard further exposed their hypocrisy.
AAP’s credibility took a massive hit when allegations of corruption surfaced. In 2016, it stopped publishing donor lists online, raising transparency concerns. The 2022 liquor policy scandal led to the arrest of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
In 2024, Kejriwal himself was arrested—the first sitting Chief Minister in India’s history to face such a fate. The party that once campaigned on anti-corruption had now become embroiled in financial irregularities.
Cautionary Tale in Indian Politics
A decade ago, Congress and BJP had aimed to pull AAP into the murky waters, forcing it to either quit politics or lose public trust. That strategy has definitely worked.
Despite its setbacks, AAP still governs Punjab and retains national party status. It secured 43% of the votes in Delhi, just 2% behind BJP. A re-evaluation of its approach and a return to its founding principles could still revive its prospects.
Kejriwal’s downfall serves as a reminder of the dangers of political arrogance. His rise was built on the back of an anti-corruption movement, but his government’s actions mirrored those he once opposed.
If AAP is to recover, it must reclaim its identity as a movement of the common people. Internal democracy must be revived, transparency reinstated, and ideological clarity regained.
The party’s journey from hope to hubris stands as a stark lesson in Indian politics: power, if not wielded responsibly, can be as destructive as the corruption it seeks to eradicate.
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