Delhi’s former Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal is set to embark on a 10-day Vipassana meditation course in Punjab. He will attend the session at a Vipassana center in Hoshiarpur from March 5 to March 15. This comes nearly a month after AAP faced a significant electoral setback in the Delhi Assembly elections, losing power to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after nearly a decade.
Sources within AAP confirmed that Arvind Kejriwal will travel to Hoshiarpur on Tuesday to join the meditation retreat. This will be his second Vipassana session in recent months, following a similar 10-day program at the Dhamma Dhaja Vipassana Centre in Anandgarh, Hoshiarpur, in December 2023. His previous retreat coincided with heightened legal scrutiny, as he was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to the excise policy.
Following AAP’s defeat in the Delhi elections, Arvind Kejriwal has largely stayed away from public appearances, focusing instead on internal party matters. In the February 5 Assembly elections, he lost his New Delhi seat, marking a significant personal setback. The AAP, which had secured sweeping victories in 2015 and 2020, winning 67 and 62 seats respectively, was reduced to just 22 seats in 2024. The BJP, which had been in opposition for nearly a decade, gained a commanding majority with 48 seats.
The election results have triggered major restructuring efforts within AAP’s Delhi unit. Party leaders have been holding organizational meetings to assess the reasons behind the loss and chart a future course of action. Delhi AAP convenor Gopal Rai has indicated that leadership roles within the party will be reassigned based on individual performance during the elections.
Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Punjab is also being closely watched amid speculation about internal dissent within the party. The Congress has claimed that several AAP MLAs in Punjab are willing to defect, though AAP has strongly denied these reports. There have also been rumors about a possible leadership change in the state, with speculations about Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s future. However, the party has dismissed all such claims as baseless.
As Arvind Kejriwal steps away for his meditation retreat, the focus remains on how AAP navigates its challenges post-election, both in Delhi and Punjab. His absence at this crucial juncture raises questions about the party’s strategy moving forward and its efforts to rebuild after a significant electoral defeat.
