Many will argue that the Congress and its young leader have ceded to Kejriwal their natural role as a challenger to Narendra Modi, in their mission to stop Modi at all costs. If so, they have done it deliberately as a strategy
One of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s key tactics has been to avoid attacking both the main national parties — the Congress and the BJP — with equal force at the same time. Whenever he focusses his arsenal against one, he very smartly reduces the tone of his attack on the other, thus becoming silent and, at times, openly supportive of the latter against the former. It must be admitted that the devious strategy has paid him rich dividends. This same ploy is now again being employed in the poll season by Mr Kejriwal against Mr Narendra Modi.
Ever since resigning as the Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr Kejriwal has been trying to position himself as the main challenger to Mr Modi in national politics by continuously targeting the latter. And by pitting himself against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate in Varanasi, Mr Kejriwal seems to have finally got Mr Modi’s attention, as the latter launched a fierce counter-attack. And much to Mr Kejriwal’s discomfiture, Mr Modi has attacked him where it hurts the most — Mr Kejriwal and his party’s controversial position on Kashmir.
Now, whether Mr Kejriwal wins or loses is a different matter. But, he calculates to achieve a few objectives by this rivalry, and the interesting point is that the Congress’s interests seem to be coinciding with this objectives of the AAP leader. More than the immediate result of his contest with Mr Modi, what Mr Kejriwal seems to be really interested in is to present himself as the principal political adversary to Mr Modi in the near future, as the latter has emerged as the tallest leader, both in terms of popular appeal and political influence. And, frankly speaking, the competition is not actually with Mr Modi; rather, it is among Mr Modi’s multiple opponents within the Modi-bashing camp as to who can emerge as the main political rival to the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. With the Congress facing a crisis of both leadership and credibility, people like Mr Kejriwal and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have emerged as the front-runners in this respect by constantly challenging him.
Mr Kejriwal knows that he will be in a far more advantageous position than others by challenging Mr Modi in the Hindi heartland, as he sees the contest in Varanasi as an opportunity to capture the popular imagination as the real alternative to Mr Modi. He further calculates that his position will be further strengthened after the election under a BJP Government led by Mr Modi if the new Government cannot control prices and if its focus remains only on economic growth and industrialisation, as it would allow Mr Kejriwal to hit the streets in his great protestor avatar.
Mr Kejriwal has even set the stage for such a showdown by continuously raking up the gas pricing issue and Mr Mukesh Ambani’s involvement in it. Though many may term it as a poll issue, its actual effect will be seen only after a new Government starts business. However, it is a unique way of political tackling by which a Government and its work agenda is being tried to be check-mated even before that Government comes to power. Mr Kejriwal used this tactic first to counter Mr Modi’s developmental claims, but then Mr Nitish Kumar and the Congress have also jumped on the bandwagon.
What makes this rivalry even more exciting is an ideological divide between the right and the left. With the decline of the centrist Congress, this rivalry between a right-wing BJP and a left-wing AAP could become the dominant theme at the national level in the coming months.
So, where does all this leave the Congress and Mr Rahul GandhiIJ Many will argue that the Congress and its young leader have ceded their natural role as a challenger to Mr Modi, to Mr Kejriwal, in their mission to stop Mr Modi at all costs. If so, they have done it deliberately as a strategy. Due to the crisis of leadership at the top and the loss of the credibility, the Congress has not been able to counter Mr Modi’s challenge. In Mr Kejriwal the Congress has found an able lieutenant for the ‘secular-socialist’ brigade who can take the fight to Mr Modi’s turf and who, even he if cannot convince people against Mr Modi’s developmental claims, can at least confuse them. And as Mr Kejriwal started his campaign against Mr Modi, Congress leaders were seen playing a second fiddle, offering punches at the Gujarat Chief Minister from the sideways.
The Congress leadership is going to continue with this tactic even after the election if Mr Modi becomes the next Prime Minister, using Mr Kejriwal (or even a Mr Nitish Kumar) as a buffer against Mr Modi, thus safeguarding the interests of the Congress’s first family. This kind of an arrangement is going to remain in place until the Government loses its popularity or develops anti-incumbency, thus offering enough motivation and confidence to any one of the young Gandhis — Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Vadra — to shed their reluctance to take on Mr Modi.