The image of Arvind Kejriwal taking a dip in the Ganga at Varanasi’s Rajghat to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha election announced him as a challenger to status quoist political parties.
He and his newly formed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — that grew out of an anti-corruption movement against the Congress-led UPA government — had earned the reputation of being a giant slayer after it ended the Congress’s uninterrupted 15-year rule in Delhi by ousting the Sheila Dikshit-led government.
Five years later, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal is struggling to register a strong performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Though the Modi wave had wiped it out even in the 2014 election, the AAP made a stunning comeback in February 2015 by winning 67 of the 70 Assembly seats.
But the mood in May 2019 is a different one. With over four years of running the State government, a sense of anti-incumbency is growing.
Turning down allliances
An alliance with the Congress would have helped consolidate the anti-BJP votes but it did not happen. The past few days have also seen desertion by at least, two lawmakers of the Delhi Assembly.
In Punjab too, where the AAP had won four Lok Sabha seats during 2014, the party has broken up into different splinter groups. Reflecting a sense of cynicism, his one-time colleague and political activist, Yogendra Yadav, who severed his ties with the AAP, suggested that Delhi voters should opt for NOTA [None of the above] during the May 12 polling.
But what perhaps has been the most regular feature of the Delhi government has been the confrontation with the Lieutenant-Governor, who represents the Centre.
From posting officials to notifying Bills passed by the Delhi Assembly, Mr. Kejriwal accused the L-G’s office of being the stumbling block in the functioning of an elected government in Delhi. Accusing the Centre of preventing an elected government from doing its job, the AAP’s manifesto now focusses on attaining full Statehood where the State government can acquire control of law and order and other key Ministries without any interference from the Centre.
The AAP has also focussed on its successes such as improving the quality of education in government schools and impressive mohalla (neighbourhood) clinics.
Key candidates
Though the party has announced candidates to all seven Lok Sabha seats, the focus is likely to be on candidates like Atishi Marlena Singh, the brain behind the revamped Delhi government schools, contesting against cricketer-turned-BJP candidate Gautam Gambhir and the Congress’s Arvinder Singh Lovely from East Delhi.
The other key candidate is the party’s South Delhi contestant, Raghav Chadha, who is locked in a three-cornered fight between outgoing BJP MP Ramesh Bhiduri and boxing champion Vijender Singh, who is now the Congress candidate.
After alliance efforts with the AAP failed, the Congress has fielded senior leaders, including former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from North East Delhi against Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and former Union Minister Ajay Maken against the BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi. With the Assembly election in Delhi about eight months away, the Congress has decided to target the AAP on its development record and bring out a report card.
The Congress believes it can win back the voters that it lost to the AAP in Delhi almost five years ago. That also explained why a section of the Delhi Congress, including Ms. Dikshit, was opposed to an alliance with the AAP.
The BJP that had won all seven seats in 2014 would be trying out its familiar faces in five out of seven seats. Apart from Mr. Gambhir, the party has fielded Punjabi singer Hansraj Hans from North West Delhi, the only reserved seat for Schedule Castes.
Fiercely fighting for its space in Delhi, the BJP is banking on Mr. Modi’s “decisive leadership” to win all the seven Lok Sabha seats as the first step in trying to dislodge the AAP from Delhi eight months later.
