The dates are yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India for the contests for seats and supremacy in the Delhi Assembly, but the Aam Aadmi Party has already moved into a high-pitched gambit to retain its hold. It now has 62 seats in a house of 70 members and anything less would be a regression.
That said, it is a reality that in Delhi which AAP had won against all odds, first for a short stint and then easily two full terms with unprecedented majority, the going is not going to be the same. For one, the combatants are not the same. Initially, it had fought a welter of parties. Recall how legacy parties had tried to kill it in the cradle.
Edited tapes were aired on news TV which showed the infant party in a concocted bad light, Anna Hazare – where is he now? – disowning it, leading lights like Prashant Bhushan, and Yugendra Yadav leaving it in disagreement with Kejriwal, et al – didn’t affect its spectacular electoral gains. It managed to do almost as well in Punjab and has now emerged as a National Party.
This time, the AAP has to win and it is taking no risks. It does not see itself contesting the elections as a pre-poll partner of the Congress with which it had trouble in Haryana. Not only did it not win a single seat there but the arithmetic ensured that it dented Congress’s prospects in a few seats. And it moved early in the game.
Therefore, AAP seems to have devised a different strategy. Alliance with Congress, it has announced, is out of the question. It sees the Bharatiya Janata Party as the main rival at the hustings and has already come out with its full list of 70 candidates. Arvind Kejriwal has already moved into the war mode.
Congress does not figure in Kejriwal’s declaration taunting the BJP. He has said the BJP was “nowhere to be seen” nor does it have a “CM candidate” nor a “vision for Delhi” while his party was “contesting the elections with full confidence and thorough preparation.” All that the BJP can say is “Hatao Kejriwal.”
It implies that the AAP is looking to a major AAP vs. BJP fight ahead in February but saying that BJP has no plan does not make it so. BJP does not say anything without a plan and when it unveils it, is to be sensed and felt, not merely heard. This election is going to be rough and cacophonic and the two may counter each other differently.
AAP’s disdain for Congress is rooted in two intentions. One, when the hustings are over, it apparently wants to share power with none; and two, when it allied with Congress for the recent Lok Sabha elections, both parties lost to the BJP. AAP is not a party which any party can share power with, nor would it want to.
Its functioning is different from other parties where there are clear hierarchies. AAP has different dynamics where Kejriwal is a maverick despite thrice being a chief minister. Its politics is pro-people and other considerations come later, if there are any. It has not played the game using emotions.
There is, however, one commonality with the BJP. Narendra Modi is the focal point and also the means to win elections. With the AAP, Arvind Kejriwal is. Others are loyal subordinates. It may be recalled that in competitive electoral politics, it was Kejriwal who used his personalized “guarantee”, which he does not hesitate to say was “copied by Modiji.”
If anything, voter fatigue with AAP, despite its successes in the delivery of promises, could be it. If it does exist, would that fatigue be overcome by the delivery of most of the promises AAP had made to Delhi residents. No doubt, some like the cleaning of Yamuna which is only a frothy watery snake coursing through Delhi, remain to be achieved. But schooling and health services stand on an unprecedented standard among all states.
Watch out for fireworks from now till the last vote is cast on the day to be fixed by Delhi. The fights are going to be intense, loud, acrimonious, no-holds-barred, and IT and AI will play a key role. It could very well be a different kind of election where the BJP is not going to be found lacking in any department. AAP may be short of funds compared to the deep pockets of the BJP.
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