Countdown To Delhi Polls: BJP-AAP Slug It Out, Congress Presence Fades

Delhi is important to the principal contenders Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mainly because it is the national capital and the central seat of power. Arvind Kejriwal's AAP appears to be well ahead in the run-up to the Delhi assembly elections on February 8. As things stand, the BJP is struggling to catch up with the AAP. Congress is nowhere on the electoral scene at the moment.

AAP

What puts AAP in the lead? Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has made work and development his main election plank. The AAP chief is so confident of his party's welfare governance over the past five years that he has asked the people of Delhi to vote for him only if they believe that he has done good work.

The Kejriwal-led AAP government is widely credited with sound work in the fields of education and health, in particular. The AAP government also focused on the health sector and tried to improve the quality of healthcare in government hospitals in the national capital. AAP met with a fair amount of success in this area. Mohalla clinics, started by the Kejriwal government, are believed to have worked well with the local people. Apart from this, subsidized electricity and water supply also account for his popularity with the Delhi masses.

Most importantly, AAP rallies around a single leader in Arvind Kejriwal.

BJP Campaign Has No CM Candidate

The BJPin Delhi is a Goliath without a local face to match the David in Kejriwal. The main contenders for the chief ministerial position, Manoj Tiwari and Vijay Goel are no match to the charismatic Arvind Kejriwal.

The party seems to be counting on PM Modi and Home Minister to work some magic, apart from its promise of regularizing unauthorized colonies. While the ruling party at the Centre thinks that national issues like Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) would swing public mood in its favour, election results on February 11 may have a different story to tell.

Congress, An Also Ran?

The Congress, in popular perception, will remain a distant third. The party seems to have collapsed under its own weight after Sheila Dixit and is searching for a credible face to helm its campaign. The likes of Subhash Chopra and Arvind Lovely are seen as lightweights against Arvind Kejriwal.