AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has been relentlessly campaigning after handing over the CM’s post to Atishi Singh in September 2024
Dented by the taint of the alleged liquor scam, Arvind Kejriwal is facing the hardest test of his political career, setting up an intriguing battle with the BJP. The Congress is also hoping to open its account after drawing a blank in the past two elections
Even before the dates for the Delhi Assembly elections were announced, the pieces on the political chessboard of the capital city were laid out as Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) geared up to capture power for the third time. Though tainted by the alleged liquor scam, which led to Kejriwal’s resignation from chief ministership, the shrewd politician was first off the blocks in announcing the list of all 70 AAP candidates.
The Congress, which returned empty handed in the past two elections—in a city where the party was in power for 15 years—is keen to open its account. It has released its list of 21 candidates in two in-
stalments, while the BJP, which has eight
sitting MLAs, has not yet released any names until December-end. The Congress has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, son of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, from the high-profile New Delhi constituency, where he is squaring off against Kejriwal.
After the Supreme Court enlarged Kejriwal on bail in the alleged liquor scam pursued by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate—he resigned from his post, handing over the reins of governance to Atishi Singh on September 17, 2024. Since then, he has immersed himself in shoring up the party’s battered reputation in the wake of the alleged scam. As the convener of the party that draws its identity from power play in Delhi, he rejected Congress
overtures for an alliance in the Assembly elections. It seems that most of the senior leadership of the party wanted to go into the Delhi polls without any alliance, unlike the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it contested four seats and the Congress three of Delhi’s seven LS seats.
Gopal Rai, a senior AAP leader and Minister for Environment, Forest & Wild life, as well as Development, and General Administration, says that his party will
return to power. “BJP is missing…they have no chief ministerial face, no team,
no planning, and no vision for Delhi. BJP
has only one slogan, one policy and one
mission—to remove Arvind Kejriwal,” said Rai. “Our leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh, and Manish Sisodia have been jailed by the BJP under a conspiracy on the charge of a liquor scam, but the people of Delhi are watching. We will form the government in Delhi with a huge majority and show the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress what corruption-free governance is all about.”
There is no denying that the party that positioned itself as “incorruptible” in the
national political discourse has been tarred by the taint of the alleged scam. Since these allegations surfaced a couple of years ago and the law enforcement agencies launched investigations, both the BJP and Congress have drawn attention to the luxurious CM’s residence which has been dubbed ‘Sheesh Mahal’.
A constructed narrative has been built to highlight the hypocrisy of Kejriwal, who claims to be a representative of the ‘aam aadmi (common people)’ but lives a
lavish lifestyle away from prying eyes. At least, that’s what the Opposition has attempted to portray, with some success.
“Kejriwal ke raj mein Delhi behal (Delhi is in a bad state during Kejriwal’s rule), the party’s MLAs and mafia got rich and make Kejriwal’s claims of honesty hollow. The tanker mafia (water tanker suppliers) is running rampant, and electricity bills are highly irregular. To destroy the future of the youth, Kejriwal opened liquor shops on every street. Their education, health, and electricity model has failed, and roads are in a bad shape…the Sheesh Mahal is a shining example of Kejriwal’s corruption,” said Virendra Sachdeva, Delhi BJP president.
After the Supreme Court enlarged Kejriwal on bail in the alleged liquor scam, he resigned from his post, handing over the reins of governance to Atishi Singh on September 17, 2024. Since then, he has immersed himself in shoring up the party’s battered reputation in the wake of the alleged scam
Delhi Pradesh Congress President Devender Yadav demanded that Kejriwal come clean on CAG reports. “The ‘staunchly honest’ Kejriwal should comply with Lt. Governor V.K. Saxena’s directive
of presenting the 14 pending CAG reports
in the House. This will expose Kejriwal’s claim of sincerity. The CAG report on 14 departments of the Delhi government contains reports related to the liquor scam.
The corruption and mismanagement in the Delhi government during the chief ministership of Arvind Kejriwal needs to come out,” said Yadav. Ironically, Kejriwal cynically exploited earlier CAG reports pertaining to 2G spectrum allocation, coal block allocation, and the Commonwealth Games, compiled during the tenure of the then Comptroller and Auditor General, Vinod Rai, to whip up an anti corruption frenzy against the UPA-2 government at the Centre and Sheila Dikshit in Delhi to catapult himself to centre stage in Delhi’s politics. In 2017, a special CBI court acquitted all 17 accused in the 2G scam, while the trial in the alleged Coalgate scam is progressing at a glacial pace, and nothing has been heard of the so-called Commonwealth Games scam since then.
PM Narendra Modi launched the BJP’s campaign in Delhi with the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Veer Savarkar University
Delhi Pradesh Congress president Devender Yadav (right) has demanded that the AAP government table the 14 CAG reports in the Delhi Assembly
Betting on 28 new faces
Amid attacks by the Opposition, AAP has
changed candidates in 28 seats. Reports indicate that many senior party leaders
and many sitting MLAs are upset at being
denied tickets. Dilip Pandey, sitting MLA
from Timarpur, expressed his displeasure
at the denial of a ticket by handing over
his resignation along with 67 office bearers from his constituency to Kejriwal. In their resignation letters, the office bearers clearly stated their unwillingness to campaign for Surendra Pal Singh Bittu, who had hopped over to AAP from the BJP recently. Earlier, Bittu has been a two-time Congress MLA from Timarpur.
Similarly, there is trouble brewing in Chhatarpur constituency after AAP gave a
ticket to Brahm Singh Tanwar, who joined
the party only recently. Tanwar has been
one of the founding members of the BJP’s
Delhi unit. This time, sensing that the BJP
might deny him a ticket, he joined AAP and was nominated as the party’s candidate, while his relative, Kartar Singh Tanwar, a two time sitting MLA of AAP, crossed over to the BJP some time ago. There are murmurs of discontent over ticket distribution in the trans-Yamuna costituencies of Ghonda and Rohtas Nagar.
Ironically, Kejriwal cynically exploited earlier CAG reports pertaining to 2G spectrum allocation, coal block allocation, and the Commonwealth Games, compiled during the tenure of the then Comptroller and Auditor General, Vinod Rai, to whip up an anti-corruption frenzy against the UPA-2 government
It is being said that AAP is facing trouble in Seelampur, Shahdara, Mustafabad, and
Patparganj constituencies as well. But the
party’s election strategists believe that the
Delhi elections will be fought on Kejriwal’s
name and face, and candidates don’t matter much.
Congress getting into the fight
In the past two Assembly elections, the contest was narrowed down to between just AAP and BJP. But after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2023-24 and Delhi Nyay Yatra, the local unit of the party appears to be more active than it was in the past two Assembly elections in an attempt to make it a triangular fight. The Congress list of 21 candidates features some prominent names.
Among them are the president of the state unit, Devender Yadav, who is contesting the Badli seat, former state president Chaudhary Anil Kumar from Patparganj, former MP Sandeep Dikshit from New Delhi, media chief Anil Bhardwaj from Sadar Bazar, five-time MLA Jaikishan from Sultanpuri, Ali Mehdi from Mustafabad and Abdul Rehman from Seelampur. Yadav claims that the Congress is in a position to form the government by going solo in this election and an alliance with AAP, which is now perceived as corrupt, would have harmed the party even more. The Congress strategy seems to be to highlight the development work and legacy of Sheila Dikshit, whose 15-year tenure saw substantial development of Delhi.
AIMIM Becomes The X Factor
Meanwhile, the entry of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) of Asaduddin Owaisi into Delhi’s politics has complicated matters for both the Congress and AAP, especially in seats with a sub stantial Muslim population. The AIMIM has fielded 2019 Delhi riots accused Tahir Hussain from Mustafabad. He is facing 11 cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. He was expelled from AAP after his name was linked to the Delhi riots. In 2015, this seat was held by Jagdish Pradhan. If Hussain is able to cannibalise the AAP and Congress votes, then the seat can potentially swing back to the BJP. AAP has fielded Adil Khan in this constituency.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva holds Kejriwal solely responsible for the stalled development of Delhi and has alleged that hehelped various mafias in the city to enrich themselves
It is believed that Owaisi’s party will end up being a vote cutter for both AAP and the Congress, benefiting the BJP in a four-cornered contest. Reports indicate that AIMIM will field candidates in seven to eight seats. There are five seats Seelampur, Mustafabad, Okhla, Matia Mahal, and Ballimaran (Imran Hussain)—in which Muslim voters constitute 40-80% while in two seats—Chandni Chowk and Sadar Bazaar—they make up about 20% of the voters. At present, AAP holds all the five Muslim-majority seats, which were earlier held by the Congress.
Overall, Muslims account for 15% of voters in Delhi.
In order to soothe the sentiments of
voters in the Muslim dominated seats,
who are unhappy with AAP’s silence during the Delhi riots, the party has field-
ed Zubair Ahmed, son of senior Congress leader Mateen Ahmed, from Seelampur.
However, the Congress has fielded incumbent MLA Abdul Rahman, who crossed over from AAP a couple of months ago.
BJP Holding Its Cards Close
Despite AAP announcing its candidates for all the seats, the BJP has not revealed its cards yet. At the time of going to press, speculation was rife that the party might field heavyweights such as former MP Meenakshi Lekhi from Chirag Delhi, Vijay Goel from Chandni Chowk or Sadar Bazar, Parvesh Verma from New Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from Kalkaji. Verma recently courted controversy for allegedly distributing money to women voters.
There are murmurs of discontent over ticket distribution in the trans-Yamuna constituencies of Ghonda and Rohtas Nagar. It is being said that AAP is facing trouble in Seelampur, Shahdara, Mustafabad, and Patparganj constituencies as well. But the party’s election strategists believe that the elections will be fought
on Kejriwal’s name
The party can also field Congress defector Arvinder Singh Lovely from a suitable
seat besides fielding other defectors like Kailash Gehlot (formerly with AAP) and
Raj Kumar Chauhan (a former Congress
minister).
A top functionary of the BJP’s Delhi unit said that “the final round of meetings
for selection of candidates by the national leadership is yet to be held. However, the party has already shortlisted three potential candidates from each seat. This time, the party is also likely to bet on new faces, including women and youth, who have a strong grip at the grassroots level and reach among the people in the field.” It is clear that the winnability of candidates will be the deciding criterion. The morale of the BJP will also be boosted by its win in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections.
With still some time left for the Delhi elections, it is clear that AAP won’t leave any stone unturned for a hat-trick in the national capital. At the same time, the straws in the political winds indicate that it will have to deal with a far stiffer challenge, from both the BJP and Congress, in its third attempt at the hustings.
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