Defeat of bad governance and corruption

 

Twelve years ago, the Aam Aadmi Party, which came to power by showing a rosy picture of clean, efficient, welfare government to the common citizens, became a rage in national politics. The party, which once claimed to be alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party in national politics and the party leader Arvind Kejriwal have been given a big blow by the Delhi voters as expected. Similarly, since in the past voters have voted for AAP in the Legislative Assembly and BJP in the Lok Sabha, the predictions of the political analysts and academics who had predicted a certain victory for the Aam Aadmi Party this time too, have been clearly disproved by the voters in Delhi.

The Delhi result is not only the defeat of ‘Brand Kejriwal’ but also the defeat of AAP’s strategy of dangerous politics of religious persuasion. In the backdrop of the anti-corruption movement with the slogan ‘Elimination of Corruption’ launched by senior social worker Anna Hazare in 2011, Kejriwal, who instilled hope in the minds of the common citizens, gradually hijacked Anna’s anti-corruption movement. Representing a large section that hates politicians, Kejriwal presented the new equation of good governance, public welfare, corruption-free politics so well that Delhiites literally showered their votes on Kejriwal in two consecutive assembly elections of 2015 and 2020. Please note that in the Lok Sabha elections held 6 months before both these assembly elections, Delhiites had elected all the 7 candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party with a huge majority.

BJP won 3 and 8 seats in 2015 and 2020 assembly elections respectively. AAP won 67 out of 70 seats in the assembly election 2015 which is about 96 percent. No other party had ever achieved such a grand success till now. The main reason behind this success was the image of Arvind Kejriwal, which was different from the established politicians. It was paired with promises like free electricity, water, education. In the last couple of years the glitter of this brand Kejriwal had slowly started fading. In 2013, Kejriwal had declared that he would not use government bungalows, government vehicles, but in reality when Delhiites saw him spending more than 50 crores on his government residence, the true nature of brand Kejriwal had started getting exposed. The Delhi government’s liquor sale scandal tarnished whatever remaining clean image of Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia & company.

There was no sign of the Kejriwal camp’s ego dying down even after the Kejriwal government’s liquor license scams came to light with proof and he was jailed for the scam. Delhiites also experienced the vengeful, cruel face of Kejriwal after the assault on a female colleague, AAP MP Swati Maliwal, in the presence of Kejriwal in the Chief Minister’s residence. Delhi voters who were greatly disappointed by Kejriwal who had announced that he will not spend even a single penny from the government treasury for his own amenities, went out to vote saying, “Aap to Aise Na The”.

At the same time, Kejriwal’s efficient governance was also exposed as he could not solve the basic problems like roads, irregular water supply, garbage in spite of being in power with a huge majority in the last ten years. Despite being in power in Delhi Municipal Corporation, the AAP government could not even solve the potholes issue in Delhi. The AAP government could not even fulfill its promise to supply water to Delhiites through closed pipelines. In this situation, Kejriwal adopted the dangerous route of playing politics of religious persuasion in Delhi. They have paid the price for that as well.

The role played by Kejriwal’s party in the Shaheen Bagh movement to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi in early 2020 and the subsequent riots was a sign of the decline of AAP. By going two steps ahead of Congress, Kejriwal reached the peak of appeasement politics. Kejriwal had to pay the price of this politics one day or the other. He had to pay the price of appeasement in the form of defeat in the assembly elections itself. Voters who were fed up with Kejriwal’s politics of blaming the central government for not being able to do development work, chose the option of change in power.

This result has completely destroyed Kejriwal’s overconfident challenge that, “Narendra Modi can’t defeat the Aam Aadmi Party in this life at least…”. Common Delhiites realized the need for a double engine government for development. There is no harm in expecting that Kejriwal and his camp will learn an appropriate lesson from the message of the voters.

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online – 10 February, 2025) 

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson