With elections for the Delhi Assembly less than six months away, political activity in the national capital is slowly gathering pace. The ruling party, the Aam Aadmi Party, seems to have been the first off the block with the Arvind Kejriwal government announcing a slew of populist measures in the past few months.
It began with the announcement that metro rides for women would be made free, the ostensible reason being that it would make travel safer for women. What connection women’s safety and the freebie have is beyond logic but nonetheless, the move is likely to fetch votes for the AAP.
In quick succession came the announcement on free water, free power up to 200 units and free ride in buses, again for women only. The hope is that these freebies will get votes, the adverse consequences on the Delhi government’s finances be damned. The slew of measures appears to have spurred the AAP’s main opponent, the Bharatiya Janata Party, into action. Not only has it been forced to think of ways to counter the AAP, it also seems to have driven home the point that its spectacular performance in the Lok
Sabha elections does not necessarily mean it will have an easy passage in the Assembly polls.
Just three months back, the BJP did exceedingly well in the national elections. Not only did it sweep the polls, winning all the seven seats, each of its candidates even increased their winning margin by up to 1 lakh votes.
On the face of it, Delhi BJP leaders say they don’t face any competition even from the AAP. But privately,
they expect Kejriwal’s party to give them a tough fight. Their fears may not be totally unfounded.
In the recent parliamentary elections, the AAP performed poorly in the face of a resurgent Congress. The strong Congress performance ensured that the anti-BJP votes got split, enabling the saffron party to win at a canter.But BJP leaders feel the same may not happen in the Assembly elections due in January-February 2020. This is because the Congress is in disarray at the moment following a prolonged spell of uncertainty at the top. The party has also lost its tallest leader in Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, who passed away in July.
A senior Congress leader said while the Muslims voted en bloc for his party in the Lok Sabha elections, helping the party to perform beyond expectation, he expected the community to switch their allegiance back to the AAP in the Assembly elections. This could spell trouble for the BJP.
BJP leaders are also acutely aware of the strong hold the AAP has among the weaker sections in Delhi, especially the lower middle class and the poor. A large chunk of this section lives in the myriad unauthorised colonies that are spread across the city.
To break this hold, which the BJP feels will guarantee it success in the elections, the party appears to be working on a plan to unveil a scheme for the unauthorised colonies. It is unclear what this scheme or sop will be,but Delhi BJP leaders remain hopeful the Centre will announce it before the elections.
The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 continuous years, is in a shambles. A senior party leader who has been active in Delhi politics since the nineties, admitted as much. He said not only has the party failed to take up issues facing the voters, it has not even mobilized its own workers. To make matters worse, the Delhi Congress is currently headless following Dikshit’s death.
To buttress his point he said the Congress vote share in the 2017 municipal corporation elections and the recent parliamentary polls were the same, 22 per cent. In his view, the fact that the party performed better than the AAP in the Lok Sabha polls was nothing to crow about.With the Congress weakened, it is clear that the coming elections will be a direct fight between the BJP and the AAP.
H Khogen Singh
Resident Editor, New Delhi
Email: khogensingh@newindianexpress.com