Riding high on the electoral sympathy after the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seems to have lost its advantages after the alleged assault on Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal in the run up for the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.
The Maliwal incident has dented Kejriwal's image badly, who is facing corruption charges in the excise policy scam case, which is visible in the party's campaign. The saffron party seems to have an upper hand in all seven seats as this has not gone well among the women voters.
Top BJP leaders are confident to repeat the 2019 results. The BJP, which is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's charisma and corruption free administration in his 10 years rule, has now focussed its strategy, utilising the alleged assault on Maliwal, to portray its top leadership, including Kejriwal, as responsible — first through "silence", acceptance, and then a "direct attack" on Maliwal — for "denigration" and "assault" of their own women colleagues.
On the other hand, Kejriwal who has maintained radio silence, seems to be on back foot, hurting the party's electoral prospects. The BJP's campaign strategy to counter the INDIA Bloc in Delhi has been to target the AAP more than the Congress.
Besides, the BJP has consistently raked up corruption allegations against the AAP, including the now-scrapped excise policy and 10 other alleged scams. AAP hopes Kejriwal's arrest will generate sympathy for the party in the general elections and help it win maximum seats in Delhi and Punjab.
The BJP hopes that Kejriwal's arrest has dented his image and the image of a party with a difference (AAP), and it would not get any sympathy votes in Delhi. BJP leaders in Delhi, however, are confident of retaining all the seven seats the party has held since 2014.
According to political pundits, the election is being contested between two personalities -Modi and Kejriwal in Delhi. This is for the first time that an election is being fought without any issues. Interestingly, there is no anti-incumbency factor against the Modi Government at the Centre. The BJP has crafted its electoral campaign well planned to corner the Kejriwal Government.
The BJP has also sought to balance the caste factor in announcing its candidates -- fielding Harsh Malhotra a Punjabi from East Delhi against AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar. Baniya leader Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk against Congress veteran Jai Prakash Aggarwal, MLA and Gujjar leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi and AAP candidate Sahiram Pehalwan, Jat leader Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi against AAP leader and former Congress MP Mahabal Mishra and Dalit leader Yogendra Chandolia from the reserved North West Delhi seat against Congress leader Udit Raj.
It has retained sitting MP Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi where Congress has fielded former JNU president Kanhaiya Kumar.
Aggarwal and Mishra have posed some challenges to BJP candidates while Kumar is facing a financial crunch to run the campaign. Kumar is collecting money through crowdfunding. The alliance of AAP and Congress, which are fighting jointly in Delhi, also seems to have not worked.
Insiders said AAP supporters do not want to revive the Congress. Similarly, Congress supporters are also against the AAP.
Besides, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also fielded seven candidates here with an aim for a stronger showing. In the early 2000s, the BSP emerged as a significant competitor to Delhi's established political parties. However, it gradually lost its support and voter share to the AAP and onwards. Despite this setback, the BSP's resilience and determination remained steadfast.
The party has this time given a ticket to former Delhi Minister Raaj Kumar Anand, who resigned from Government and AAP in April, from New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. In East Delhi, it has fielded Md Waqar Choudhary who earlier claimed to have campaigned for AAP.
The BSP has given tickets to Muslim candidates on two more seats - Abul Kalam Azad, a lawyer, in Chandni Chowk and Abdul Basit in South Delhi.
The other candidates include Vishakha, the lone woman in the BSP's line up, from West Delhi, Vijay Bauddh from the reserved constituency of North West Delhi and Ashok Kumar in North East Delhi.
The party sent 17 Councillors to MCD in 2007, 15 in 2012 and three in 2017. It, however, failed to open the account in 2022.
Delhi has witnessed split voting in the past 10 years, voters backing the BJP overwhelmingly in national elections and the AAP in Assembly Elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP again swept Delhi, winning all seven seats. The AAP's vote share fell to 18 per cent, while the BJP's improved to 57 per cent.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP had secured 56.5 per cent of the polled votes in the national Capital, the Congress 22 per cent, and the AAP 18.1 per cent. In the 2020 Vidhan Sabha elections, the AAP again won 62 of the 70 seats, its vote share jumping to 54 per cent, while the BJP's declining to 39 per cent.
