Delhi is set for assembly polls. With the election commission announcing the schedule, the battle lines are clearly drawn. Two principal contenders for power in Delhi are the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, and the BJP that has traditionally been well-entrenched in the national capital. The Congress party, faced with a serious leadership crisis at the national level and its support ebbing, comes as the third electoral force; but with a footnote — that a Maharashtra-like situation of a post-poll tie up cannot be ruled out between the Congress and the AAP.
An alliance of the AAP and the Congress is unlikely before the polls, if one minds the fact that the AAP was a creation against the corruption under the Congress-led UPA period. Kejriwal has, on his part, done a job in the past five years. He has reduced corruption in governance. He retains his image of being sincere to the underlings’ cause in the capital – who are electorally a decisive force. At the same time, perceptions are also that if a BJP government ruled Delhi, its civic problems would have been attended to in a better way with liberal central funding. Clearly, all these factors will work to the advantage or disadvantage of rival contenders as the state goes to polls a month hence.
Also, Delhi elections will be seen as a referendum on some of the controversial and hard-edged steps of the Modi-Shah dispensation at the Centre. If the BJP wins this polls, it could be interpreted as a vote in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as also the NRC-NPR exercises set in motion by the government, apart from the Kashmir initiative. While Kejriwal was opposed to the CAA, he did not join the fight against it in a forceful manner. Clearly, he needs both the sides, to win the polls. The Congress too has been openly cautious about challenging the new law.
State assembly polls are fought generally on local issues. Civic issues in Delhi will occupy a central place in this election too, but Delhi being the national capital, it is likely that issues like CAA too will occupy the minds of voters. This gives a new sensation to the Delhi polls. Also, the BJP will have a serious loss of face if it does not win this election, as it has lost as many as five state polls in recent times – Maharashtra and Jharkhand being the latest and Haryana too returning a fractured verdict.
