The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s past is coming back to haunt it as it takes uncertain steps towards the anti-BJP bloc ahead of the 2024 general election. Skipping the joint press conference at the end of the June 23 Opposition meet and delivering an ultimatum just hours later betrayed the AAP’s own hesitancy about the foray and also raised doubts in the minds of other Opposition leaders.
Though Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has, over the last few months, met several Opposition leaders in one-on-one meetings, this was the first instance he was invited to the Opposition high table. He was not part of similar confabulations in December 2018 ahead of the last general election. At that time, the Congress was blamed for deliberately keeping the AAP out. But the Congress has softened its position since then and for the last few months, the AAP has been a regular in the Opposition’s Parliamentary strategy meets which were attended by its MPs. But for Mr. Kejriwal, this was his first time sitting across the very people he had stridently attacked as “corrupt” in his pre-AAP avatar.
