Amid INDIA rifts, AAP to go solo in Bihar polls on debut, eyes expansion
Gearing up to make its foray into Bihar's electoral politics for the first time since its inception, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to go it alone in the state Assembly polls slated for October-November this year.
Routed in its Delhi stronghold earlier this year after remaining at the helm for 11 years, the AAP is eyeing a larger political footprint across the country – including in some crucial poll-bound states like Bihar where its INDIA bloc allies are taking on the ruling BJP-led NDA.
In Punjab, which is now the only state where it is in power, the AAP is into fourth year of its tenure, trying to bolster its administration as well as the party organisation.
The AAP's quest for a larger part of the national vote share would pit it against more than one of its INDIA allies in some key Assembly elections over the next couple of years – the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Left in Bihar; and the Congress and Left in Punjab.
In contrast, the INDIA bloc would find a united NDA in Bihar, where the BJP is putting in place an aggressive joint campaign along with the Janata Dal (United) and LJP (Ram Vilas) among other regional parties.
Highlighting Operation Sindoor and the 'achievements' of its governments in Bihar and at the Centre, the NDA would seek to retain power in the state.
While the AAP has also decided to independently contest the 2026 zila panchayat polls in UP, it has yet to take a call on the 2027 UP Assembly polls, where the party is also likely to go alone, according to party insiders. The AAP has begun holding several training camps for volunteers across several districts in UP.
Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, in the midst of the party's bypoll campaigns in Gujarat and Punjab, visited Bihar earlier this week. 'We have decided to contest the Bihar Assembly elections on our own. The AAP will contest all Assembly seats (243 seats) in the state. We will also contest the UP zila polls in 2026 alone,' Singh, who is also the AAP's in-charge for UP, told The Indian Express.
'This will be the first time that we will contest polls in Bihar… The foundation of the party's organisation in the state has been in place since (the 2014 Lok Sabha polls),' he added.
Asked what this would mean for the AAP's equations with the INDIA alliance, Singh said, 'The INDIA bloc was only for the Lok Sabha polls. After that, (INDIA parties) have contested separately in Haryana, then Delhi, and now we will do so in Bihar as well.'
After its seat-sharing talks with the Congress failed in both the October 2024 Haryana and February 2025 Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP has targeted the Congress on various issues besides slamming it for its role as the leader of the INDIA bloc.
According to AAP sources, the party's decision to go it alone in Bihar and UP would underline its commitment to expansion well ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
With AAP national convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as its face and the party's 'governance model' based on free and efficient delivery of public utilities in addition to focus on education and health its main plank, the party has already started hitting the ground in Bihar and UP.
In UP, for instance, the AAP has raked up the issue of 'costly electricity and frequent power cuts' in the state capital Lucknow, with Singh saying the state's schools and hospitals also needed an overhaul. Claiming that the AAP has been on a mission to connect with each village in UP, Singh added that the state was in need of 'kaam ki rajniti (politics of work)'.
The issues of law and order and unemployment are at the core of the party's campaign in Bihar too, where the AAP is in the process of inducting and training volunteers.
Meanwhile, senior AAP leaders, including its newly-appointed Delhi chief and former minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, have undertaken visits to several slum clusters across the national capital, which have recently seen demolitions and have been predominantly inhabited by people from UP and Bihar. The AAP has alleged that these migrants have been rendered homeless by the 'BJP's four-engine sarkar'.
The AAP's upcoming poll plan for Bihar, as well as UP, would be significant for the party, organisationally. Sources said the AAP was seeking to identify a third tier of leadership within its ranks as it continues to create a nationwide cadre. It already has Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai and Satyendar Jain at the top followed by the second rung of Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj, among others.
AAP sources said it was 'confidence' among the party's core group of leaders that led to its decision to take a plunge into the Bihar polls.
'All our state in-charges and organisational heads are in the states that have been assigned to them. The party is building itself from the ground up and receiving tremendous response,' an AAP insider claimed.
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