Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister, was re-elected as the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convenor on Sunday. According to a senior party official familiar with the proceedings, Pankaj Gupta was re-elected party secretary, while Rajya Sabha member N D Gupta was elected treasurer.
On Saturday, the party’s national council conducted its annual meeting, during which a 34-member executive council was chosen. The newly-elected executive council met for the first time on Sunday. Both meetings were conducted through video conferencing.
The decision comes at a time when the party is expanding its wings beyond the national capital and preparing for assembly elections in six states – Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and Gujarat – in the next two years. Delhi also goes to the municipal polls next year with the three civic bodies in the city currently ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Earlier this year, the AAP won 27 seats in the municipal polls in Gujarat’s Surat. It continues to be the ruling party in Delhi, having won 62 out of 70 assembly constituencies in the February 2020 assembly polls. It is also the principal opposition party in Punjab.
In January this year, the party held its previous national council meeting, which was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In that meeting, it passed resolutions extending tenures for the posts of national convenor and secretary from three years to five years, and removed a provision which prohibited re-election of the same person in these posts for more than two consecutive terms.
