Mercury levels in Delhi have been going south for the past week, touching new lows, but political temperature is slowly headed north with elections to the Delhi Assembly set to be announced any time now.
Elections and politics top the list of discussion during conversations in neighbourhood parks and drawing rooms. During the peak of the anti Citizenship Amendment Act protests, animated debates on the new law were the norm, with views on who would benefit from the agitation sharply divided.
While Aam Aadmi Party supporters felt the protests reflected the anger against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the AAP’s main opponent, the saffron party’s admirers were of the view that a polarised population would help the party in the elections.
The jury is still out on the CAA’s benefits, which means the BJP cannot be sure of the dividend the new law can give, but that is not the case with some of the successful economic interventions made by the AAP government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The most popular schemes of the AAP government are the free water supply and the slashing of power bills. From people belonging to the low income groups to the upper middle class, these two freebies are a runaway hit with them, perhaps even with those who can’t benefit from them. Even many BJP voters, who have also benefited from the free water and power, privately concede that the Kejriwal government has earned a lot of goodwill because of the schemes.
The AAP also seems to have taken the lead as far as low key campaigning is concerned. The party’s workers are going from door to door, handing out booklets containing the Kejriwal government’s five-year report card.
The report card had recently been released with much fanfare by the CM but the party is supplementing that with a mass contact programme by its workers and sympathizers. After giving the four-page booklet containing the report card, they are even taking photographs of the residents, perhaps in order to keep a count of the people they have touched base with.
Other than this, the government has gone on a publicity blitz with almost daily advertisements in the media, both print and television. So as far as eyeballs are concerned, the AAP seems to have had a head start.
The BJP, the AAP’s principal opponent, appears to be lagging behind, at least at this stage. Neither has the party gone from house to house, nor has it started a publicity drive. It is only on social media that the party appears to be active, where it is circulating videos of the alleged false promises of the Kejriwal government. These video clips have been circulated widely and in this is age of smart phones, they are a powerful tool to spread the message across.
The BJP’s trump card is the Centre’s decision to regularise 1,731 unauthorised colonies, which house more than 40 lakh residents in the national capital. The decision is expected to mostly benefit poor migrants, who constitute the key voters of the AAP.
Following the passage of the Bill in both Houses of Parliament, the Centre moved quickly, setting up help desks and accepting online applications for regularisation of property. With national issues such as nationalism, Ram Mandir and the CAA unlikely to swing voters in the national capital, the BJP has realised that it has to go local for the Delhi elections.
The Delhi BJP, under the leadership of Manoj Tiwary, has set up several committees and they are holding regular meetings. Tiwary appears to have the backing of the party high command but it is not that he doesn’t face a threat to his leadership.
That, in fact, differentiates the BJP from the AAP. While Kejriwal is the undisputed leader of the ruling party in Delhi, the same cannot be said of Tiwary, who has detractors such as former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP, Vijay Goel.
Goel has been in Delhi politics for decades but does not enjoy a good reputation. It was perhaps because of this he was overlooked to head the BJP in Delhi. He has his own views on how to run the party’s affairs and that often brings him in conflict with the party. During the recent two week-long odd-even exercise in Delhi, Goel openly opposed it claiming it was a drama enacted by the Delhi government to fool the people.
The Delhi BJP had to issue a statement to distance itself from Goel, who intentionally flouted the rule by driving a car on an unauthorised day. But whatever be the BJP’s internal tussles, the battle lines have been drawn for Delhi Election 2020.
H Khogen Singh
Resident Editor, New Delhi
Email: khogensingh@newindianexpress.com