The Aam Aadmi Party’s landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, unprecedented in India’s Assembly polls, must have sent tremors across the country’s political terrain. The proverbial ‘broom’ swept virtually everything before it.
No one, despite the ‘very favourable’ exit polls predictions, had thought the AAP would win 67 out of the 70 seats. The BJP, which swept to singular victory in the lok Sabha polls hardly nine months ago and then marched through State after State assuming power, did not have any explanation for the three seats it managed to win.
And for the grand old party, the Congress, it was the worst-ever show as it failed to retain even the one seat it had won last time with its Chief Ministerial candidate Ajay Maken losing by a staggering 50,000 votes.
Though it’s too early to comment on this euphoric victory for Arvind Kejriwal and his party, one thing came through clearly. The people were always looking for a credible alternative and when they spotted the AAP as one on which they can pin their hopes, they voted for it en masse.
The same logic worked last year when the people voted for the BJP-led NDA because the voters thought it to be the credible alternative in the backdrop of the mess that the UPA 2 Government had turned into. The AAP, at that time and even now, had not surfaced as a national alternative.
From now on, the AAP may spread its wings and rise as an alternative in different States where people had no choice but to willy-nilly vote for a party which never was their first choice.
In the lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi’s modest background had caught the imagination of people as he evolved as the ‘humble chaiwallah’ who came across as the underdog. This time, Kejriwal was the underdog as Modi was looked upon as the high-flying mascot of India’s development.
The Delhi poll campaign, in which BJP stalwarts including Prime Minister Modi and party chief Amit Shah were star campaigners, witnessed the saffron leaders hitting out against Kejriwal hurling epithets like ‘Bhagoda’, ‘anarchist’ and ‘Naxalite’ at him. Though it has become the pattern of electioneering in India — and a BJP leader argued on a TV channel that ‘exposing the opponent’ was a time-tested political ploy during elections, Kejriwal was dignified in whatever he said.
He did not launch any personal attack on the BJP leaders. On the other hand, he humbly acknowledged his mistakes including his decision to resign in a huff after 49 days in the Government seeking forgiveness and appealed to the people to give his party one more chance to make a fresh beginning. Several times, he did not feel bad about saying ‘sorry’ for the AAP’s inexperienced stint in governance.
In politics, saying sorry or admitting a flaw is always seen as a ‘weakness’ which should always be shunned. The norm has been that a strong leader should never say ‘sorry’ as he or she cannot be seen to have made mistakes. But in spite of the poundings different parties have suffered in past hustings, this realisation has not really dawned upon the political class. This arrogance comes across every now and then. Utterances by BJP leaders during the campaign were dripping with such arrogance, not to mention about suits with a price tag.
It will now be interesting to watch how AAP leaders behave once they get into the saddle of governance. Kejriwal has described his party’s momentous victory as “a vote for truth and honesty”.
One or two points may be discussed here. It proved that attempts at religious polarisation do not work among the people who are more focused on issues of development. Five attacks on different churches within two months in Delhi as the campaign was on were a slur on the Government.
While Home Minister Rajnath Singh turned down requests of church leaders to discuss the matter with the BJP leadership, protesters were manhandled and arrested while they gathered in front of a church. This might not have gone down well with the voters of Delhi.
Most political observers feel the BJP’s decision to parachute Kiran Bedi out of the blue as its Chief Ministerial candidate was a blunder. It did cause rumblings within the party as other aspirants were sidelined.
Whether all the leaders gave their every effort during the campaign is something to be ascertained. The bigger question is whether, as it is being discussed in the media, the Sangh Parivar threw its entire weight behind the BJP campaign. If the Parivar and Modi are not on the same wave length, it could have bigger repercussions in the days to follow.
The possibilities that loom on India’s political horizon can be anything. Now, the AAP can become the rallying point for other political outfits to make it a bipolar battle between the BJP and the rest. But time will tell what it holds in store. Truly, no one thought this kind of a result was possible in Delhi. But what Uddhav Thackeray said summed it all up: “People of Delhi have proved that a tsunami is bigger than a wave.”
(The writer is a Bhubaneswar-based senior journalist)