R Krishna Das
The BJP sweeping the Delhi Assembly elections and the rout of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its convener Arvind Kejriwal was imminent. What surprised everyone was the devastating fall of the AAP.
The party had won the last two assembly elections in Delhi by a one-sided mandate. In the 2020 polls, the AAP secured 62 seats while the BJP bagged eight. In the 2015 elections, the AAP bagged 67 of the 70 seats.
The AAP could manage to retain a little over one-third of the seats it held in the last assembly elections. There would be a lot of analysis but the two factors would be seen as a turning point that demolished AAP’s political prospects in Delhi.
Firstly, Arvind Kejriwal took the party cadre and even the voters for granted. After his arrest and subsequent jail, his wife Sunita emerged as his political heir; delivering political speeches and statements against the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and the BJP. It created a message that she would wear Kejriwal’s shoes that did not go well with the cadre that advocated high ethics in the party.
Secondly, Kejriwal underestimated the voters by serving freebies with an expectation that they would fall in line. While the upper and upper middle classes were already resented, the poor section did not buy Kejriwal’s sops given the poor rate of delivery.
A bigger section of voters could sense that Kejriwal, who took the Delhi Assembly Elections as his personal fight rather than party’s, ran out of issues. The poisoning of Yamuna was one of the issues that boomeranged as voters treated it as a cheap political vendetta. It was a solid example to endorse that the AAP was diverting from its agenda to exercise clean politics.
The VIP culture introduced by Kejriwal also contested AAP’s agenda. The Sheesh Mahal row pushed Kejriwal and AAP on the backfoot. The BJP’s claims got validation with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India report revealing that the preliminary estimate for the renovation was Rs 7.91 crore. When the Public Works Department completed the job in 2022, the cost had jumped to Rs 33.66 crore, the CAG report said. The AAP Convenor, who promised not to avail special security and CM’s bungalow before coming to power, was found having all the luxuries and indulging in corruption.
One of the other reasons for the voters’ anguish was said to be Kejriwal’s failure to convince that AAP was an honest party, the tag with which it came into being. In the Delhi excise policy case, the top leadership of the AAP — Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh — were arrested and jailed. Instead of putting up a strong defence, the AAP leaders continued to blame the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But it failed to draw voters’ support as the matter was related to the court of law.
The AAP was eyeing another victory this time but got decimated as people refused to give in to its excuse that the Union government was creating roadblocks in the functioning of its government in the national Capital. Frustrated with constant allegations against the Centre, the people of Delhi voted for change.
What worked wonders for the BJP and against the AAP is the ‘Modi ki guarantee’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-decibel electioneering and guarantees ensured the BJP’s victory.
