Formation In the years immediately preceding the 2011 anti-corruption protests under the erstwhile
Second Manmohan Singh ministry led by UPA , there were examples of alleged corruption in the country; these included the
Adarsh Housing Society Scam, the
2010 housing loan scam, the
Radia tapes controversy, and the
2G spectrum case.
Massive anti-corruption protests and strikes were initiated by
Anna Hazare in 2011 as a response to exposure of these financial scams and corruption. The aim was to press the government to enact a strong and effective Lokpal (Federal
Ombudsman) through a
Jan Lokpal Bill. Hazare was supported by a clutch of activists and professionals which became popularly known as
Team Anna. Team Anna also included a civil-servant turned activist
Arvind Kejriwal. Hazare had wanted to keep the movement politically neutral but Kejriwal considered that direct involvement in politics was necessary because attempts to obtain progress regarding the Jan Lokpal Bill through talks with existing political parties had, in his opinion, achieved nothing. A survey conducted on a Facebook page that purported to be operated by India Against Corruption and other social networking services had indicated that there was wide support for politicisation. Hazare rejected the poll, saying "elections require huge funds, which will be tough for activists to organise without compromising on their values". He also said it would be difficult to ensure that candidates are not corrupted once elected. Hazare and Kejriwal agreed on 19 September 2012 that their differences regarding a role in politics were irreconcilable. Kejriwal had support from some anti-corruption movement activists, such as
Prashant Bhushan and
Shanti Bhushan, but was opposed by others such as
Kiran Bedi and
Santosh Hegde. On 2 October, Kejriwal announced that he was forming a political party and that he intended the formal launch to be on 26 November, coinciding with the anniversary of India's adoption of its Constitution in 1949. The party was formally launched in Delhi on 26 November and in March 2013, it was registered as a political party by the
Election Commission of India. On 26 November 2012, the formal launch day of the AAP, former law minister
Shanti Bhushan donated to the party. Prashant Bhushan, his son, was a member of the party's National Executive Committee. The party raised by November 2013 and received in 2015 assembly polls. On 18 May 2013, a group of
Indian Americans from 20 different cities in the US held a convention in Chicago and extended support to the AAP. The convention was attended by two AAP leaders,
Kumar Vishwas and
Yogendra Yadav, and Kejriwal addressed it via video conferencing.
Aruna Roy and
Medha Patkar, who had differences with Kejriwal on certain issues, supported him after his 15-day fast against inflated electricity bills. Later two of the founders of the party, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, left the Aam Aadmi Party in 2017 and formed
Swaraj Abhiyan. On 23 March 2013, Kejriwal began an indefinite fast in an attempt to mobilise people against inflated power and electricity bills at a house in Sundar Nagri, a low-income group resettlement colony in North-East Delhi. During the protest, he urged Delhi citizens not to pay "inflated" water and electricity bills. The AAP also demanded an audit of power and electricity supply in Delhi by the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India, something that was also supported by civil society groups like the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM). The AAP claimed that the protest gathered support from people in Delhi on a single day and more than people up to 28 March 2013. Anna Hazare urged Kejriwal to end the fast on 29 March and he did so on 6 April. On 10 June 2013, Kejriwal supported agitation by Delhi auto rickshaw drivers, who were protesting the
Delhi government's ban on advertisements on auto rickshaws. Kejriwal claimed the government's ban was because the drivers supported his party and carried AAP's advertisements on their vehicles. He said that the AAP would put 10,000 advertisements on auto rickshaws as a protest. In retrospect, after Kejriwal had been elected and then resigned his position, a union representing the drivers expressed dissatisfaction, saying: "Arvind Kejriwal, who had won the elections because of the support of the auto drivers, has betrayed them by not fulfilling any of the promises made before the elections". On 22 April 2015, the AAP organised a rally in Delhi against a land acquisition bill.
In Delhi 2013 The
2013 Delhi state assembly elections were the party's first electoral contest. The Election Commission approved the symbol of a broom for use by the AAP in that campaign. The party said that its candidates were honest and had been screened for potential criminal backgrounds. It published its central manifesto on 20 November 2013, promising to implement the Jan Lokpal Bill within 15 days of coming to power. In November 2013, a sting operation conducted by Media Sarkar alleged that several leaders of the AAP, including Kumar Vishwas and
Shazia Ilmi, had agreed to extend their support to some people seeking assistance with land deals and other financial arrangements in return for donations in cash to the AAP. Ilmi offered to withdraw her candidature as a result, but the party refused to accept her offer, describing the footage as fabricated and a violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The Election Commission ordered an inquiry regarding the legitimacy of the video where the political leaders have raised funding through "illegal" means. However immediately after the general elections, Shazia Ilmi (PAC member) resigned from the party. The AAP emerged as the second-largest party in Delhi, winning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats; the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the largest party, won 31, while its ally
Shiromani Akali Dal, won 1; Indian National Congress won 8, and two were won by others. On 28 December 2013, the AAP formed a minority government in the hung Assembly, with what Sheila Dikshit describes as "not unconditional" support from Indian National Congress. Kejriwal became the second-youngest
Chief Minister of Delhi. As a result of the Delhi elections, the AAP became a recognised state party in Delhi.
2015 The Delhi state assembly elections for the
Sixth Legislative Assembly of Delhi were held on 7 February 2015, as declared by the Election Commission of India. The Aam Aadmi Party scored a landslide victory by winning a majority of 67 of the 70 seats. The BJP was able to win 3 seats and the Congress party saw all its candidates lose. Kejriwal became the Chief Minister for the second time. The AAP had started campaigning in Delhi in November 2014 and declared candidates for all 70 seats. During the campaign, Kejriwal claimed that the BJP had been trying to bribe AAP volunteers. He asked Delhi voters to not deny the bribes offered to them. He suggested that voters should accept the bribe from others and yet vote for AAP through the secret ballot in the election. The situation caused the Election Commission of India to instruct Kejriwal to desist from breaking laws governing the model code of conduct for elections in India, but the Delhi court then allowed Kejriwal to challenge this. The President's Rule was subsequently rescinded and Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi with six cabinet ministers (
Manish Sisodia,
Asim Ahmed Khan,
Sandeep Kumar,
Satyendar Jain,
Gopal Rai, and
Jitender Singh Tomar). Major differences surfaced within the party leadership soon after its victory. It created deep fissures between the founding members who had together championed the anti-corruption movement. Problems emerged in February 2015 when Yogendra Yadav and Prashanth Bhushan wrote a joint letter to the National Executive, highlighting Kejriwal's tendency to unilateral decision-making, which they alleged had compromised the party's core principle of Swaraj. After continued allegations, counter-allegations and several failed attempts at reconciliation between the two sides, Yadav and Bhushan were first removed from the PAC and later from the National Executive after the party's National Council passed a resolution to expel them for their alleged anti-party activities. Party leaders refuted accusations made by Yadav and Bhushan at the meeting that the party was murdering democracy and resorting to intimidation. In April 2015, Yadav, Bhushan, Anand Kumar, and Ajit Jha were removed from the party.
2020 Voting for the Delhi Assembly elections took place on 8 February 2020, following vehement campaigns run by the major political parties contesting the election. The counting of votes and subsequent announcement of results happened on 11 February.
Arvind Kejriwal became the
Chief Minister of Delhi for the third consecutive time. The party's vote share was 53.5%, according to the results.
2025 The incumbent Aam Aadmi Party, which was in power for the previous ten years, lost the election, with several prominent leaders and cabinet ministers including national convener
Arvind Kejriwal,
Manish Sisodia,
Satyendra Kumar Jain,
Somnath Bharti,
Saurabh Bhardwaj,
Rakhi Birla, and
Durgesh Pathak losing their seats. AAP managed to win only 22 seats, which was the party's worst performance in Delhi to date. Its vote share plummeted to 43.57%. The BJP formed the government with 48 seats.
In Punjab For the
2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, the
Lok Insaaf Party allied with the AAP. This alliance was called the
AAP Alliance and was represented on news channels as
AAP+. It won 22 seats in total, two of which were won by the Lok Insaaf Party and the other twenty by the AAP. The party won a landslide victory in
Punjab, defeating the incumbent Congress government of
Charanjit Singh Channi, and state party convener
Bhagwant Mann was sworn in as the new CM. The party also gained two seats in
Goa and five seats in
Gujarat.
Across India State elections For the first time, the AAP contested the
2017 Goa Legislative Assembly election. In Goa, the AAP could not win any seats, and 38 out of 39 candidates failed to save their security deposits. The AAP contested in
2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election for the first time, won 14 seats and became the single largest party in the council of total 35 elected seats. Sitting mayor Ravi Kant Sharma from BJP lost his seat to AAP candidate Damanpreet Singh. In January 2021, Arvind Kejriwal announced that AAP would be contesting
six state elections in 2022. The six states were
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Goa,
Gujarat,
Uttarakhand, and
Punjab. The party would later win the
2022 Delhi Municipal Corporation election and other municipal elections in Punjab. In December 2022, the party emerged as the third front in the
politics of Gujarat after
2022 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election. It secured 12.92% of the votes polled and five seats in the Assembly. Apart from Gujarat, AAP was also accorded the status of state party in
Goa. In the
2024 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, AAP opened its account in
Jammu and Kashmir by the victory of
Mehraj Malik from
Doda Assembly constituency in the Jammu region by a margin of 4538 votes, making him the union territory's first AAP MLA.
National elections The AAP fielded 434 candidates in the
2014 Indian general election, in which it did not expect to do well. It recognised that its support was based primarily in urban areas and that different strategies might be required for different regions of the country. The party pointed out that its funding was limited and that there were too many demands for local visits from Kejriwal. The intention was to field candidates in large numbers to maximise the likelihood of recognition as a national party by the Election Commission. The outcome was that four AAP candidates won, all from
Punjab. Consequently, the AAP became a recognised state party in Punjab. The party obtained 2% of all votes cast nationwide and 414 of its candidates forfeited their
deposit by failing to secure one-sixth of the vote in their constituencies. Although the party secured 32.9 per cent of the votes in Delhi, it failed to win any seats there. AAP convenor, Arvind Kejriwal fought from
Varanasi against BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi, but lost by a margin of 371,784 (20.30%) votes and came second ahead of BSP, Congress, SP. The National Executive member, Yogendra Yadav, in a letter to his party members criticised Kejriwal's style of leadership. After the National Executive meeting on 8 June, the party and Kejriwal acknowledged these differences and announced the launch of "Mission Vistar" (Mission Expand), to include more people in local as well as national decision making. Unlike the
2014 Indian general election, the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the party decided to contest elections on limited seats of some of the states and all the seats in
Delhi,
Goa, and
Punjab. In the state of
Haryana, the AAP formed an alliance with
Dushyant Chautala's
Jannayak Janata Party to contest three
Lok Sabha constituencies. The PAC also decided to support and campaign for
CPI (M) in
Kerala. The party also fielded its first
transgender candidate from
Allahabad in
Uttar Pradesh. The AAP won only 1 constituency of
Sangrur. The party later won the
Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in 2023 after
Sushil Kumar Rinku's victory. The
2024 Indian general election period also coincided with investigations by authorities into state officials belonging to opposition parties, including
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal, who was under investigation for alleged corruption in the
allocation of liquor licences. Following
Kejriwal's arrest on 21 March over the liquor license scam charges, Delhi's finance minister
Atishi Marlena Singh accused the BJP of orchestrating a "political conspiracy" against Kejriwal. His arrest also led to clashes between party leaders, supporters and the police on 22 March. Rahul Gandhi, reacting to Kejriwal's arrest, said that a "scared dictator" wants to create a "dead democracy", without naming anyone. After he was released on bail and allowed to vote, Kejriwal urged citizens to "vote against dictatorship". He then returned to prison as part of his bail conditions. Atishi later became CM of Delhi in September 2024 after Kejriwal's resignation. With the Congress-led
INDIA Alliance, the AAP won 3 seats in 2024, all in Punjab. In 2026,
Raghav Chadha, AAP's deputy leader in the
Rajya Sabha, was removed from the post. He and 7 other AAP MPs later quit the party and joined the BJP. == Ideology ==