NEW DELHI: The national capital witnessed a unique election campaign that ended on Thursday evening.
Firstly, it saw the bonhomie of bitter rivals AAP and Congress aligning to contest seats under the 4:3 agreement.
Secondly, AAP’s star campaigner and Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, was arrested for an alleged excise scam, leading to parallel protests by AAP and BJP—the former against incarceration and the latter seeking his resignation—and in the absence of Kejriwal, the AAP bringing his wife Sunita on the frontline.
Then, in the middle of the campaign, Arvinder Singh Lovely quit as Delhi Congress president and joined the BJP. Finally, Kejriwal got bail from the Supreme Court for campaigning, forcing the BJP to redraw its strategy.
The stakes are too high this time. For the INDIA bloc, it is a matter of survival, while it is a battle of prestige for the BJP.
Seven Parliamentary constituencies in Delhi—Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi, North West Delhi, and North East Delhi will undergo the voting process on May 25, where precisely 1.47 crore eligible voters will exercise their franchise. A total of 162 candidates are in the fray, including Manoj Tiwari and Bansuri Swaraj of BJP, Somnath Bharti and Kuldeep Kumar of Aam Aadmi Party, and Kanhaiya Kumar and JP Agarwal of Congress.
Initially, the campaigning began on a dull note with the BJP and AAP announced their candidates early, the Congress remained in the doldrums for a long time. After much deliberations at the higher levels, it announced its three candidates for Chandni Chowk, North East, and North West Delhi.
Kejriwal arrest
Even as electioneering was gradually picking up the pace, a massive political storm hit the capital with Kejriwal’s arrest, which changed the entire political landscape and even the poll strategy for all the parties.
Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 and the “city’s political buzz” shifted its base from the CM’s residence to Tihar Prison.
While some political pundits predicted that the arrest of the sitting CM would generate a “sympathy wave” in AAP’s favour, others refused to buy that, especially those supporting the saffron clans.
AAP’s complete focus was on their convener’s arrest, and the BJP chalked out a strategy to counter the CM’s arrest.
The directives from the BJP’s top leadership to all seven candidates were clear: win with a margin of at least 5 lakh votes, a difficult task given that AAP and Congress had stitched an alliance.
His release
Soon, the AAP received a morale booster with the release of its firebrand leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, whose first request to the party workers after walking out from Tihar Jail was not to rejoice in his release until other senior party leaders were also out.
While shifted its poll gear and started a unique “Jail Ka Jwaab vote se” campaign that was reaching the masses, on April 14, Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand resigned from both his post and the AAP over what he called the party’s “downfall” from an anti-corruption group to a party “that’s dipped in corruption”.
The outgoing minister also accused AAP of “discriminatory practices” in staffing leadership positions in the party, saying the party doesn’t respect the ministers, MLAs, and councilors from the Dalit community.
Lovely resignation
The INDIA bloc partners were again hit with a jolt. Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from his post on April 28 and a mere 20 days before the polling day in Delhi, he joined the saffron ranks along with his supporters on May 4.
The bloc got the proper reprieve at the right time when the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal, injecting a spirit to fight the elections into the veins of the AAP leaders and workers. A sea of AAP supporters reached Tihar Jail to witness the exact moment when Kejriwal walked out of prison—the message was clear—the contest won’t be an easy ride for the BJP.
The last ten days before the high-octane elections marked the entry of top leaders from both sides, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned for the local candidates. While BJP is hopeful of repeating its stellar performance of the last elections, the INDIA bloc, with rejuvenated energy, banks on multiple issues like anti-incumbency, rise inflation and unemployment.
Capital battle
Seven Parliamentary constituencies in Delhi—Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, East Delhi, West Delhi, South Delhi, North West Delhi, and North East Delhi will undergo the voting process on May 25, where precisely 1.47 crore eligible voters will exercise their franchise. A total of 162 candidates are in the fray, including Manoj Tiwari and Bansuri Swaraj of BJP, Somnath Bharti and Kuldeep Kumar of AAP.
