New Delhi: As evening sets in, the Satyawati College road in North Delhi is enveloped in darkness. But this Thursday, the route lights up as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s cavalcade approaches.
The Aam Aadmi Party chief is campaigning in full swing for the Lok Sabha 2019 elections and today, he is seeking votes for the party’s Chandni Chowk candidate Pankaj Gupta. At Wazirpur, Kejriwal takes the mic, “Iss baar vote sirf jhaadu pe daaliyega. (This time, cast your ballot only for the broom, the AAP’s poll symbol).”
“If you elect all our seven candidates to Parliament, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be able to block the work we are trying to do for Delhi,” he says.
This sentiment is a common thread that runs through all of Kejriwal’s roadshows — the focus on Delhi and the issues plaguing the national capital.
It’s far cry from his high-profile campaign during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the Delhi chief minister harboured national ambitions. It led to a perception that he would provide a tough contest in Varanasi to then PM-aspirant Narendra Modi.
Kejriwal, however, came a distant second to Modi by a margin of over 3 lakh votes.
An AAP leader, who did not want to be named, however, told ThePrint that Kejriwal had no such ambitions. “Kejriwal’s prime ministerial ambitions were just a rumour,” he said. “Nothing to substantiate it was ever said.”
But much like its chief, AAP too has scaled down its ambitions. In 2014, AAP contested in 432 seats but won just four — all in Punjab. This year, however, the party is contesting in around 30 seats.
“Everyone learns from their experience,” the AAP leader said. “We realised that after 2014, we needed to consolidate in areas where can make an impact first.”
Also read: AAP has a host of promises for Delhi — but only if the national capital becomes a state
Of Varanasi and Delhi
The Varanasi election of 2014 was seen as a David vs Goliath battle. Kejriwal’s rallies drew crowds in great numbers, as it did detractors. He was positioned as an alternative to both, Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
“The party has decided that I will contest against Modi. But I am a small man. This will be the people’s fight, I will only be their face,” the AAP chief had said on 18 March 2014. “People of this country want a brave PM, not one who wants to contest from a safe seat. People of this country will question his intentions.”
AAP’s 2014 manifesto also centred on the theme of swaraj (self-rule) and promised to return power to the people. From holding gram sabhas, making health services accessible to all, to introducing the Jan Lokpal to increase accountability, the manifesto held a national vision.
“Kejriwal was the most serious challenger to the emerging persona of Modi in 2014,” a political analyst who wished to remain anonymous told ThePrint.
“It was part of his carefully curated image, where many names, like that of Gopal Krishna Gandhi were eliminated to field Kejriwal.”
According to the analyst, although Kejriwal claimed in his book Swaraj that he never wanted to be a minister, that craving for power was evident.
“It’s like there are two Kejriwals. One that was dealing with us, and one known only to him,” the analyst said. “The second one, that craved power, grew as he became party convenor, then chief minister, and even more when he appointed himself as a challenger to Modi in 2014.”
In these elections, however, AAP’s metamorphosis into a party focused on electoral efficacy, according to the analyst, has confined it to a tiny pocket where it is relevant — the national capital.
Its 2019 manifesto, in keeping with this trend, focuses more on what the party has managed to achieve in Delhi, and what it can achieve if the alleged interference by the central government reduces.
From offering 85 per cent reservations in government jobs and colleges to 33 per cent reservation for women in the police force, AAP’s manifesto makes promises that are premised on the capital becoming a state.
“Seven MPs of Delhi will play a crucial in the formation of the new government,” Kejriwal said Thursday at an unauthorised colony near the Azadpur metro station. “Vote this year not to elect a prime minister, but to make Delhi a state.”
Also read: Under Arvind Kejriwal govt, enrolment & pass percentage have fallen in Delhi govt schools
A scaled down AAP
AAP’s loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections appears to have forced the party to revisit its national strategy. “AAP was never a party grounded in regional politics,” a second analyst told ThePrint. “The idea was always national.”
But its national ambition took a second hit with the loss in the assembly elections in Punjab in 2017.
“If they had won Punjab, they would have probably been the face of the opposition,” the second analyst said.
The analyst also said that Kejriwal’s ambition to be PM is like any other politician. “If Nitish Kumar can harbour that ambition, why can’t he?” he asked.
The second analyst, however, believes that Kejriwal may just have put those dreams on hold for now to focus on the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi.
“If they lose, one doesn’t know what kind of impact it will have on the upcoming assembly elections,” he said. “The question that one must ask is not whether AAP has a national ambition, but whether it has national relevance.”
Also read: Atishi, will AAP also treat Muslims as just a pliant, fearful votebank, asks Umar Khalid
The man is a charlatan and is a complete fraud! Had he been serious he would have done it exactly in reverse. In 2014 he should have had the modesty and realism to aspire to deliver corruption free sound Delhi administration and not try to be PM of India. Today he has come to realise the realities while his Party has come apart with so many of his stalwarts gone! Media critical cs harp on about Modi’s megalomania while totally giving Kejri a free pass on that score!
Overall it’s an okay article as the author DEEKSHA BHARDWAJ misses a few important points. She is looking AAP as a whole, but for each event she is making Arvind Kejriwal accountable. For example, AAP wanted a larger footprint in 2014 and Kejriwal being the most known face of it, was selected to contest against Narendra Modi. As it was known later, Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia wanted to first have a strong foothold in Delhi and slowly expand to other states, but the intellectuals like Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan wanted a larger footprint. The author is missing that point.
Arvind Kejriwal how many times you will befool the people of Delhi
Being a good CM of Delhi, helping make it a world class city, should be ambition enough.