Results of recent elections to State Assemblies and that of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi clearly indicate that the BJP, soaked in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma, is unbeatable for now

A few days before the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections, Ajay Maken, Delhi Congress president and the man entrusted with the task of trying to resuscitate his party one more time, had appeared on a show hosted by ABP News TV. He arrived in the studios, brimming with confidence and upbeat about the Congress’s performance.

Within minutes of his arrival, news broke about local bossman Arvinder Singh lovely, who had stood by the Congress in its bad times since the fall of the Sheila Dikshit Government, jumping ship and joining the BJP. Ajay Maken suddenly looked defeated and abandoned. Maybe he was expecting the desertion, maybe he was quite unprepared that such a blow would come virtually on the eve of popping. The seasoned politician, who has seen far worse, broke down and took a while to recover.

By itself Arvinder Singh lovely’s exit did not mean much. But it reflected the prevalent mood of despondency in the Congress which did not quite match Ajay Maken’s assessment that with the Aam Admi Party (AAP) squeezed out of the race, the contest was now between the BJP and the Congress.

Stark reality sank in on counting day. The BJP swept the polls with a tally of 181 wards, followed by AAP, a distant second with 48 wards in its kitty. The Congress proved to be a straggler, an also-ran, with 30 wards to its credit. Ajay Maken did the

honourable thing by resigning from his post, something which his leader Rahul Gandhi should have done long ago and saved the Congress from being wheeled into the ICU, where it lies in a coma.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his coterie of flatterers were less than graceful in their response to the BJP’s victory and AAP’s total defeat. In fact, they further shamed themselves and their party in the popular perception, though it remains unknown whether they realise how shameful their unbecoming conduct has been ever since AAP swept the Delhi Assembly poll. Hubris is unfailingly followed by Nemesis.

Umar bhar Ghalib yahi bhool karta raha; Dhool chehre pe thi, aur aina saaf karta raha. This Urdu couplet, attributed to poet Mirza Ghalib, is a sharp comment on those who refuse to see the fault that lies with them — all his life Ghalib kept making the same mistake; the dust was on his face, but he kept cleaning the mirror.

By mid-morning on counting day it was obvious that the BJP was headed for a sweeping victory in the elections to the three municipal corporations in Delhi. The final tally was in keeping with the projections made by pollsters before and after the elections on April 23. If there was any deviation, it was in the BJP stopping short of crossing the 200 mark.

In a sense, the outcome of the corporation elections was a foregone conclusion, especially after the BJP’s spectacular performance in the recent State Assembly elections, more so in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and in the by-election to an Assembly seat in Delhi, earlier held by AAP. Clearly the ‘Modi Wave’ is yet to ebb; indeed, unless something dramatically and drastically goes wrong with the Prime Minister, the political fortunes of the BJP will remain the envy of its floundering opponents in the foreseeable future.

If the BJP’s victory has not come as a surprise, it stands to reason that the crushing and humiliating defeat suffered by Delhi’s blunderbuss Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP should not amaze anybody either. Kejriwal knew that AAP would be roundly rejected in these polls, that his theatrical entreaties, at times wheedling and at other times crude, would neither win hearts nor charm minds. The writing on the wall was loud and clear.

Yet he chose to post himself and his party as the natural winners of these elections when they were clearly the losers. It could be argued that there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, every party contests elections confident of victory even if the odds are too high to overcome. What Kejriwal did was to add a rider — victory would be his provided the EVMs were not ‘tampered’ with. Predictably, AAP has credited victory not to the BJP but to EVMs whose chips bleed saffron.

In doing so, Kejriwal and his cabal believe they have deflected attention from AAP’s defeat. In reality, they have been shown to be too-clever-by-half. The arrogance that laced their response to the results; their sneering, people-have-erred, condescending attitude; and, the cussedness with which they have disowned both accountability and responsibility for AAP’s defeat, portray them as insufferable oafs.

Which takes us back to Ghalib’s couplet. Kejriwal is singularly responsible for his party’s abysmal performance. He is accountable to AAP’s supporters. But he is loath to admit so. He remains unendurably sanctimonious and vacuously pompous. He refuses to see the fault that lies with him. Instead, he blames others. That’s what he has done all the time he has been in public life.

In the early days of AAP this may have found favour with its zealous supporters. But now that the masque has slipped off and a run-of-the-mill, just another small time, petty-minded politician has emerged from the shadows of the activist he once was, even diehard supporters have begun to turn their backs on him. Politics is a cruel business. leaders who fall off their pedestal are like Humpty Dumpty — they rarely if ever rise again.

While it is true that there are no full stops in politics and no politician should ever be written off as a ‘has been’, it would not be entirely incorrect to suggest that the ‘Kejriwal Story’, as we knew it when AAP stormed to power in Delhi two years ago, is over. Rewriting the story and making it saleable once again is a tough proposition, if not impossible. The ride this point on will be extremely bumpy and prone to unmitigated disaster.

To point out the Congress has come a pitiable third in the latest electoral race is meaningless. The party has decided not to make even the slightest effort to get out of its comatose state of existence. To blame Ajay Maken for the party’s dismal performance would be wrong. He did what he could — he could not do a lot because he faced insurmountable obstacles by way of fifth columnists in the party that was, not many years ago, the dominant political force in India from panchayat to Parliament.

That pole position is now occupied by Modi. The BJP is the beneficiary.

(The writer is Commissioning Editor & commentator, ABP News)