After the Aam Aadmi Party’s heavy defeat in the 2017 Delhi municipal elections, a column argued that the party was facing a crisis about its very future. It pointed to the meeting Arvind Kejriwal held on Thursday with the party’s newly elected municipal councillors as a sign of the problem.

The column’s argument

According to the column, the councillors had held on to their seats in a contest in which many party colleagues lost, yet the meeting opened with the Delhi Chief Minister scolding them for arriving late and making him wait.

The writer argued that Kejriwal missed a chance to boost the morale of winners, many of whom he was meeting for the first time. Instead of recognising what their wins meant, his speech was described as heavy on moral lectures and focused on the party’s earlier successes.

The column also said Kejriwal spoke fondly of the party’s early years rather than addressing the crisis created by the defeat in Delhi and the weaker-than-hoped results in Punjab and Goa.

What happened next

In the 2020 Delhi assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party won 62 seats against the BJP’s 8, and Arvind Kejriwal continued as Chief Minister.

See also: election news

Originally published on 29 April 2017. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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