New Delhi: In an interview earlier this year in April, Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Sandeep Pathak, then newly elected member of Rajya Sabha, had reportedly said: “My mind works as a scientist, not as a politician”.
Pathak was Tuesday appointed the national general secretary of AAP, a position created just for him. He was also made a “Permanent Invitee” to the Political Affairs Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body.
Though not a new name in political circles, Pathak’s rise is unique given his strong academic CV and low profile among the masses.
The 43-year-old was born in Chhattisgarh’s Batha village. He moved to Bilaspur for his schooling and, after earning a BSc there, he went on to get a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. He then pursued further studies at UK’s Oxford University, and then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. He became a member of the AAP in 2016.
Pathak was also an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in the department of energy science and engineering, which he joined in 2016 as well. He left in 2020 and has been working full time for the AAP ever since.
Pathak came into prominence after AAP’s massive sweep in Punjab during the 2022 assembly elections. He was said to be the brains behind the party’s election strategies.
In April, addressing a crowd in Bilaspur during his first visit to the city after becoming a Rajya Sabha MP, Pathak had pitched himself as the “son of Chhattisgarh”. “I was in the US and England for nine to 10 years. I have left big jobs in those countries to come back to India,” he said.
“I was an IIT professor in Delhi — a government job — and had a comfortable life…I left that to join politics…. Countries that got independence after us have moved ahead of us. India is stuck because of corruption everywhere…because politics here is flawed. Schools and hospitals are flawed here because the politics here is flawed. Politicians have spoiled the politics here,” he added.
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Work within AAP
Though now considered a close aide to Arvind Kejriwal, national convenor of AAP, Pathak wasn’t always part of the party’s core and claimed to have personally met the Delhi CM only after the party’s defeat in 2017 Punjab elections.
Like many other professionals — such as other prominent faces in the AAP, like Saurabh Bhardwaj, Somnath Bharati and Dilip Pandey — Pathak was drawn to the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement in 2011.
In 2017, according to Pathak, he was sent for a survey to Punjab ahead of the assembly polls. Despite his qualifications as a scientist and researcher, Pathak was new to surveying. “I started roaming around in Punjab, talking to people, understanding what they were saying and documenting it, which I would then send to Ashishji (Ashish Khetan), and eventually they realised that my understanding was, to a certain degree, correct post-election results,” said Pathak during an interview.
Most exit polls in 2017 had predicted a win for the AAP, but the party failed to make a mark in the state and won only 20 seats.
For the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, Pathak began his work in the state two years before the polls, reorganising and restructuring the party, all the way to the village level. His efforts clearly paid off as the party got a thumping majority, winning 92 of 117 seats.
Pathak’s system relies heavily on surveys and feedback. He, in fact, said the party’s “scientific and systematic” surveying system is superior to those of private agencies.
Before the AAP’s Punjab win, Pathak also worked in close quarters with Prashant Kishor, then a political strategist, to plan the party’s campaign in Delhi for the 2020 assembly elections. However, it was only after the Punjab win that his name came to the forefront.
Following this, Pathak was chosen to represent the party in the Rajya Sabha from Punjab along with four others, including Raghav Chadha and Harbhajan Singh. When Pathak was filing nomination papers for Rajya Sabha, AAP had tweeted, “He has been working in the background & has been instrumental in the party’s victory in Delhi & Punjab.”
Appreciating his role in Punjab elections Anmol Gagan Maan, state tourism minister wrote, “Sandeep Ji played an exceptional role behind the historic win in Punjab elections. He designed a campaign that assisted AAP to successfully reach every household in Punjab with its public welfare policies.”
Role in Gujarat
In March, Pathak was appointed Gujarat in-charge and also the co-in charge for Himachal Pradesh in June. After building an organisation in the hill state ahead of the elections in July, Pathak had said: “I had said sangathan aisa banega ki duniya dekhti reh jayegi (we will build an organisation that will impress the world). Our organisation will be much stronger than even in Punjab and Delhi.”
However, the party’s focus soon shifted to Gujarat, and Himachal was no longer a priority. The party ended up getting 1.1 per cent vote share in Himachal.
While campaigning in Gujarat in August, attempting to capitalise on Hindutva sentiments, Pathak had mentioned words like ‘Bhagwan’ and ‘Ganesh’ eight times in an eight-minute speech. He said, “They (BJP) have started their end. And the Aam Aadmi Party has begun its rise. I will work 24 hours. I will give my life.”
In Gujarat, the party managed to get 12.9 per cent vote share and five MLAs in its debut election. Arvind Kejriwal called the party’s performance in Gujarat positive and a “big deal”.
After Pathak was given the new role at national level, Kejriwal wrote, “I congratulate Dr Sandeep Pathak and wish him good luck for his new responsibility. We have to build AAP sangthan in every nook and corner of the country”.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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