Arvind Kejriwal during his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rally in Mumbai.
Most reports and assessments of the forthcoming elections in Delhi have focused on a possible fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress is nowhere in the discussion. Given the Grand Old Party’s past performance in the state’s election and the recent losses in Haryana and Maharashtra, it is not seen as a player. On the other hand, the AAP, which confounded expectations by winning 28 seats in Delhi is making a bit of a comeback.
This is somewhat surprising — after Arvind Kejriwal resigned abruptly 49 days after he became the chief minister of Delhi, he was pilloried for it. The BJP coined all kinds of names for him and even his die-hard supporters appeared taken aback. Mr Kejriwal now calls his decision to quit a mistake, but at that time, he and his cohorts had couched it in the most grand, ideological terms, making it sound like a principled ges-ture. In truth, it was nothing but an abject inability to understand the nature of power, which comes with responsibility and obli-gation. He and the rest of the AAP turned out to be a bunch of over-enthusiastic do-gooders who had no ideas, no plans and no vision.
Their habit of asking questions, many of them inconvenient, won them admirers who were fed up with the existing brand of politics and the enormous and totally disproportional media coverage given to them turned them into all India stars. People que-ued up to join this new, clean kid on the block and celebrities pledged their support. But haranguing politicians is one thing, running a government is quite another. After it found itself in the hot seat, the AAP couldn’t make the transition from party of opposition to party in power. The various stunts pulled by its leaders — a midnight raid on Africans to drive out “prostitutes” and the fast on the streets to demand that the police come under the Delhi government confounded even its own supporters. Then came the resig-nation and the party has only declined.
In the run up to the Lok Sabha elections Mr Kejriwal had shown he could still get the headlines, but his lack of political acumen was apparent right away. Where was the need to contest 400 plus seats? The party had neither the resources nor the right candidates for that many constituencies. It had no systems in place to ensure that the new recruits were compe-tent, clean or even adherents to the AAP philosophy. It got swept away by the moment and by the conviction that its cause was so pure, so noble that the public would vote for it in hordes. The media, hostile to the Congress and smitten by Narendra Modi, was ready to give the AAP a chance — notable columnists spe-culated on the possibility of Mr Kejriwal even becoming the Prime Minister! One can only wonder what kind of Kool Aid these learned pundits were drinking, because it was clear even then that the party had no chance of winning more than a handful of seats.
Mr Kejriwal was never a threat to Mr Modi in Varanasi, no matter what his fans said; besides, the media was now slowly deserting him. On his part, he was claiming that journalists were little more than paid agents of this party or that industrialist, his usual tactic whenever things did not go his way.
In the last five months or so, Mr Kejriwal has kept a low profile. His party chose not to contest any state elections, even in Haryana, where one of its most high profile leaders Yogendra Yadav had worked to create a base, even if he lost in the Lok Sabha elections. More worryingly, for the party, many of its followers, especially high-profile ones, have quietly deserted it.
Some are looking for new political homes, others have just dropped out after their initial foray into politics — they seem disillusioned by their experience and their defeat. Clearly, a large number of AAP enthusiasts had just jumped on to the rolling bandwagon and have no patience for the onerous and dreary task of organisational building. For all practical purposes, the AAP had disappeared from sight.
And yet, Mr Kejriwal seems to be on every channel and in every newspaper, sounding feisty but sober, all set to contest elections once again. Journalists are not just interviewing him, but also positioning him as a key player, if not the eventual winner. The BJP, which has been on a roll since May, is now seen as shaky and not a little worried in Delhi while the Cong-ress seems to not exist. The AAP may have lost the support of the middle classes, goes the theory, but it has the backing of government servants who are angry with Mr Modi for making them work as well as that of the poor.
Astoundingly, the AAP website had a banner declaring “Modi for PM, Kejriwal for CM”, but realising the implications of the somewhat ill-judged statement, it was hastily removed. This may or may not prove that AAP is the B team of the BJP, as the Congress says, but it does show not just confusion in the ranks and a desperate attempt to ride on Mr Modi’s image.
Will the AAP once again flatter to deceive? Has the media, which still retains a residual fondness for Mr Kejriwal, got it wrong once more? Will a severe drubbing in these elections once and for all spell the end of this party? We will know soon enough. But the portents do not look good. The voter may well ask what the AAP has to offer him or her and sadly, the answer is, very little.
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