Delhi Assembly polls will not be cakewalk for AAP

Will free power upto 200 units, free water, claims of having brought in revolutionary changes in school infrastructure facilities and the latest promises of “Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana”, under which women will receive monthly aid of ₹2,100, and “Sanjeevani Yojana”, which will provide free health care to senior citizens if voted to power, help the broom party (AAP) to sweep the polls?

When AAP was formed in 2012, it promised to sweep Delhi of corruption and prove to be a real Aam Admi Party. But instead of broom cleaning Delhi has landed itself in a slush of charges of corruption. The feeling at the ground level is that AAP has changed from Aam Admi party into Khas Admi party.

The refurbishment of Kejriwals bungalow with costly fittings and furniture has drawn flak from opposition BJP and the people of Delhi. The allegations are that the party which assured to change the life of Delhiites for better has made their life miserable with highest level of pollution and lack of safety for life and property.

On the political front, till June AAP and Congress were great pals. Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallkarjun Kharge defended Kejriwal when he was arrested and sent to jail in the alleged liquor gate scam. Kejriwal said he would be out if Congress led INDIA bloc comes to power. But now it’s the case of “Dost Dost Na Raha…” Both have become bitter rivals, and AAP wants that Congress should be thrown out of INDIA alliance. AAP had also failed to win any seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Hence, the indications are that for AAP the Delhi Assembly elections will not be a cakewalk this time. In a strategic move to bolster its chances, the BJP is set to contest the Delhi polls with strong support from parties within NDA’s fold, including Janata Dal (United), Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

While Congress and AAP will go alone, Nitish Kumar’s JDU and the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister led NCP (Ajit Pawar) group also decided to contest 11 seats and has announced it list of candidates saying that it wants to regain the national party status which it had enjoyed in the past. Political circles feel that though the allies of NDA cannot win the seats, they would help in splitting the votes of Congress and AAP which could benefit the Lotus Party.

AAP alleges that BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ has begun,and they submitted nearly 5,000 applications for vote deletions and 7,500 applications for new additions. AAP claims that they verified 500 of the 5,000 applications for deletions and found that 408 of those voters had been living at their addresses for the last 20 to 30 years. This means valid, existing voters are being deleted, AAP alleges.

The BJP on the other hand alleges that Kejriwal was manipulating votes in 70 constituencies and in Narela alone they had applied for 2000 new voters. They allege that many Hindu votes were being deleted and muslim votes are being added.

The fight by and large is likely to be BJP v/s AAP. Congress as usual may prove to be a late entry into campaign. What would be their ‘KhatakatFatafat’ narrative remains to be seen.

If they decide to continue with ‘Adani and Constitution Khatremein Hai,’ well for sure it would be Congress Khatremeinhai. One thing is clear an interesting poll battle is ahead. Let’s see how people react.