Delhi Elections 2020: BJP's High Octane Campaign Against AAP May Backfire

As the AamAadmi Party (AAP) vs BJP contest for Delhi assembly polls enters its final week of campaigning, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party seems to have turned the tables on the ruling party at the Centre. The BJP has only itself to blame for this.

BJP MP Parvesh Varma queered the pitch in campaigning by claiming that protesters such as the ones in Shaheen Bagh and elsewhere, would enter people's homes and rape women. What was he thinking when he made such a comment? He didn't stop there. Varma called Arvind Kejriwal a terrorist and a leader with a Naxalite style of functioning. The BJP MP also said that the Shaheen Bagh protest site would be cleared on the day of results itself, (February 11), if the BJP was voted to power this time.

Arvind Kejriwal was quick to turn Parvesh Varma's remarks into a weapon for AAP and in his roadshows and press meet, the AAP supremo played the victim card to the hilt. He asked whether working for the development of Delhi, improving its education and healthcare systems, made him a terrorist.

Union Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur, did not help his party's cause either when he asked a crowd at an election rally to chant, "shoot the traitors."

Both Varma and Thakur were docked by the Election Commission, but the damage had been done. The BJP now finds itself a bit on the backfoot when it comes to playing the nationalist card.

Soon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hit the campaign trail, as will Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and a clutch of other BJP leaders. The next few days will perhaps prove to be the most decisive phase of the Delhi polls set to be held on next Saturday.