The national capital is warming up for the February 5 assembly polls, wherein the ruling Aam Aadmi Party faces the all-powerful BJP on the one side and the Congress on the other. While a three-cornered contest would make the fight a bit easy for the AAP to perhaps retain power in Delhi, the party is faced with several odds. The cases that party chief Arvind Kejriwal and his senior ministers face in courts may cast a shadow over the AAP’s old image as the torch-bearer of the anti-corruption movement. Yet, what gives a perceptible shot of confidence to Kejriwal and his party is the strong backing the underlings in the national capital gave it all through the past several years. Kejriwal’s repeated innings as chief minister saw the grant and extension of several benefits to the people, especially to the ordinary families. If he capped it with a free bus travel facility to women some time ago, his offer now is free bus travel for students, a `2,100 dole to women, and much more. The free water and electricity facility would continue too as per his party’s manifesto released this week.
At the ground level, nothing goes to show yet that Kejriwal’s popularity has dwindled in Delhi after the liquor scam surfaced or following his incarceration in Tihar Jail for five months to ultimately get conditional bail. This necessitated a change of chief minister and his confidant Atishi Marlena being put in the saddle. Kejriwal obviously does the backseat driving. The somewhat surprising victory for the AAP in the Punjab assembly polls two years ago added to the clout of Kejriwal and the AAP. No other regional entity runs governments in two states. Yet, mass discontentment is palpable against maverick chief minister Bhagwant Mann and by extension the AAP too. Though the AAP aspired to win power in Haryana, it could not make an impact there; and so was the case in Goa too.
While the BJP would again try its best to unseat the AAP and grab power in Delhi this time, the Congress party does not have an organisational heft. This has been the case after the end of the Sheila Dikshit era. The party could not come up with another credible leader to take on Kejriwal. On the other hand, the attempt at overkill from the Modi establishment’s part appears to have spawned the opposite result: Kejriwal and AAP are seen by sections of the ordinary masses there as a victim of the BJP’s political conspiracies. A BJP rule for Delhi could, in PM Modi’s words, mean a “double-engine sircar” to speed up the capital’s economic development. Kejriwal might still hold his ground on the claims of “good governance and a fair deal” for the ordinary people. The poll results on February 8 will be eagerly awaited by one and all.
