New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, which failed to win a single seat in Haryana in the last state election and ended up with 1 per cent votes, hopes to play the kingmaker this time. The ambition was voiced by its senior leader Raghav Chadha, days after AAP ended all possibilities of an alliance with the Congress and announced its first 20 candidates.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Chadha said today, "This time government will not be formed in Haryana without AAP".
Another post predicted a dire outcome for Dushyant Chautala's Jannayak Janata Party or JJP, which had had aided the BJP to form an alliance government in 2019.
"The people of Uchana had elected the VIP leader of JJP with great expectations but that leader betrayed the people. This time the JJP is going to become Jamanat Japt Party (the paty which lost its deposit)," read a rough translation of the post by Mr Chadha.
The JJP had contributed 10 crucial seats in the last alliance when the BJP had won 40 of the 90 seats, six less than the majority mark.
That alliance collapsed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections as the JJP complained that the farmers' anger against the BJP was costing it its crucial support base.
The results of the Lok Sabha polls reflected just what the JJP was apprehensive of. It failed to win a single seat in the Lok Sabha election. The BJP was down from 7 to 5 and the gap was filled by the Congress which went up from one to five seats.
It is the JJP's political space the AAP wants to occupy now, but with the Congress clearly retaining its position as the state's main Opposition party that is hoping to be on the cusp of a comeback, AAP's task may not be easy.
The assembly election will be held in Haryana in a single phase on October 5 and the votes will be counted on October 8.