New Delhi: One-and-a-half years ahead of the next Punjab assembly elections, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has begun a “performance” survey of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The survey findings, according to several AAP sources, will be crucial to Mann amid speculation that the party leadership is exploring a change of guard as one of its options for beating anti-incumbency.
Punjab residents are receiving calls from the “chief minister’s office”, asking if they are happy with Bhagwant Mann and whether there is anything they would like to flag. “Are you happy with the work of the chief minister or not?” is the direct question asked by the survey team members.
Sources in the party say the AAP-Delhi team is conducting the survey to assess CM Mann’s popularity before deciding whether he should continue as the party’s chief ministerial face.
“Despite all the tensions that continue to simmer between the Chief Minister and the Delhi team, the party chief Arvind Kejriwal has realised that their options of CM alternatives in Punjab are almost nil,” says an AAP leader on the condition of anonymity. “This survey is most likely an attempt to find out if AAP needs to seriously look for an alternative beyond Mann.”
Not everything has been right between the party’s Delhi leadership and Mann, who has often been charged with kowtowing to the Delhi leadership. In the face of the AAP-Delhi team’s public criticism and opposition to his leadership, CM Mann has failed to shed this widely prevalent perception.
Following AAP’s debacle in Delhi last year, most of the leadership has made Chandigarh their second home. A large part of the Punjab government’s civil and police machinery is now engaged in working with the leadership, according to party sources. Most senior officers of the Punjab government and the Punjab Police have, supposedly, been reporting directly to the AAP’s top leaders, Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia.
“Today, Mann’s relationship with the Delhi leadership can be described as one of negotiated coexistence. Both sides recognise their interdependence. Mann needs the organisational machinery and brand value of AAP, while the party needs its only Chief Minister to stay aligned,” says Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur of the department of political science, DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh.
“But the fundamental difference remains. Mann’s politics is rooted in Punjab’s regional identity, while the Delhi leadership views AAP as a centralised national project. This structural tension ensures that disagreements—sometimes private, sometimes public—continue to shape the relationship,” adds Kaur while speaking to ThePrint.
Since last year, the grip of the party’s Delhi leadership has been apparent in the running of the Punjab government. Besides making political strategies, key appointments, the government’s decisions, damage control, and social media regulations, all of it has reportedly been under the direct control of the party’s Delhi leadership. This has left very little space for CM Mann’s leadership.
“Maybe the Chief Minister does not want to shed that impression. He can use it if shove comes to push next year. If Kejriwal decides to change the Chief Minister ahead of the elections, Mann can fall back on the narrative that the Delhi team was not allowing him to work for Punjabis,” adds Kaur.
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An attempt at course correction
Apart from judging the Chief Minister’s popularity, the ongoing survey is also expected to guide the party towards tweaking its poll strategy.
“There is a lesson for AAP in Punjab from the Bihar elections. If the party works towards targeted monetary help, such as loans to women and loan waivers to farmers, the anti-incumbency could be overcome,” says Kaur.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, the promise of free power across Punjab was one of the major factors that contributed to the party’s victory in the state.
The only other question in the survey is whether the resident has been getting free power. If the resident replies in the negative, the caller explains that the reason is that the resident’s electricity consumption crosses the 300-unit limit of free electricity.
“This is a common complaint of many that, despite the promise of free power, they are still receiving power bills. During the survey, the beneficiaries are being told that if they were to consume less power, they will have no bill at all,” a party leader tells ThePrint.
The survey, according to party sources, is also a move for a possible course correction while there is still time. The Mann government is facing severe anti-incumbency and is under attack for its non-performance and unfulfilled promises. The government is also perceived to have failed to maintain law and order in the state. Moreover, although announced multiple times, the pre-poll promise of giving a monthly support of Rs 1,000 to all women in Punjab is yet to be fulfilled.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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