New Delhi: A fidgety 72-year-old Dilshad Khan frantically started looking out for an empty seat in a makeshift tent as the afternoon heat got more unbearable. The sun was over the head and sitting in a shade could have brought some temporary relief. It was still half an hour to go till Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal took over the stage facing the tent.
“I truly respect this person and I had to come today,” said Khan, a resident of north-east Delhi’s Seelampur, who had to change two public buses to reach the AAP’s head office in Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg on Saturday. “I am telling you: those who jailed him in the fake case will face the consequences.”
Khan was among hundreds of people who had thronged the AAP’s head office on Saturday afternoon, beating the heat, to get a glimpse of Kejriwal in public – something that was happening after a long time.
Dilshad Khan was part of Saturday’s public gathering at AAP’s head office in Delhi. Photo: Abhishek Dey.
“These are challenging times and we must stand by him (Kejriwal). That’s why you can see such a huge gathering today. It only reflects his massive popularity,” said Vinay Gupta, a 40-year-old garment trader from east Delhi’s Shakarpur, who too was part of Saturday’s gathering.
When Kejriwal arrived and took the stage around 1 pm, with other senior AAP leaders such as Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh and Sandeep Pathak, and four of his Delhi cabinet colleagues joining him, the party’s office campus was teeming with people. Many of them sported Gandhi caps, held placards and waved yellow-and-blue flags in support of Kejriwal.
Kejriwal walked out of Delhi’s Tihar central jail on Friday – after spending around one-and-a-half months there. The Supreme Court granted him interim bail, which came as a huge relief for the AAP and others in the INDIA opposition bloc because Kejriwal will now be able to campaign for his party and his alliance members for the remaining phases of the ongoing general elections.
Also read: Kejriwal Arrest: This Coup Against Our Constitutional Setup is a Wake-Up Call
He was arrested by the enforcement directorate on March 21 in connection with a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy 2021. It’s the same case, registered in 2022, in connection with which Kejriwal’s former deputy Manish Sisodia has been in jail since March 2023.
Kejriwal was sent to judicial custody on April 1. By then he had moved the court challenging his arrest as “illegal”.
He gave a short speech from the sunroof of his car soon after walking out of jail on Friday.
But Saturday’s event, which was initially supposed to be a press conference, was Kejriwal’s first official public gathering as part of the ongoing Lok Sabha election campaign of the AAP.
“The PM seems to have left no stones unturned to crush our party,” said 55-year-old Kejriwal, as the crowd roared in applause. “But he [PM] forgot that we are more than just a party. The AAP is an idea. And ideas get stronger when people try to crush them.”
In his speech, Kejriwal took multiple potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – which coincidentally has its head office on the same road, roughly 100 metres from the AAP’s office. “This is a big fight. I want the support of 140 crore people. I appeal to you to save the nation,” he said.
Highlighting the BJP’s unsaid rule of retiring political leaders at the age of 75, Kejriwal pointed out how Modi would turn 75 next year, and rhetorically asked people who they think would replace the prime minister then. “I warn people. Modi ji is not seeking votes for himself but for [Union home minister and old aide] Amit Shah as the future PM.”
Although Shah has said that Modi will complete his tenure as prime minister if elected to a third term, some have pointed to a video of Shah from 2019 where is heard saying that the BJP had decided that those above 75 years of age ‘will not be given any responsibilities’.
A group of supporters carrying flags in support of AAP. Photo: Abhishek Dey.
Too much time lost, too little left
Kejriwal is now in a race against time. He has been directed by the Supreme Court to surrender on June 2 – a day after polling in the seventh and last phase ends – and go back to Tihar. The counting of votes will take place on June 4. It means he has three weeks in hand in which he has to participate in multiple roadshows, rallies and public gatherings both in Delhi and in other states. Kejriwal is the first name on the list of AAP’s star campaigners, followed by the name of his wife Sunita Kejriwal.
He has already lost a lot of time. States in which the AAP fielded candidates include Delhi, Punjab, Assam, Haryana and Gujarat. Delhi and Punjab are states governed by AAP. They go to polls on May 25 and June 1, respectively. Haryana too goes to the polls on May 25. But polls in Assam and Gujarat are over.
Mann, who took the stage before Kejriwal on Saturday, tried to address this challenge. “Our responsibilities have increased. We have only 20 days left with us [referring to Kejriwal’s remaining bail period]. Till now we used to work 12 hours a day, now we have to work 18 hours a day,” Mann said in his speech, during which people witnessed him seamlessly transform into his stand-up comic avatar now and then while taking digs at the AAP’s political opponents.
AAP leaders further pointed out how Kejriwal was scheduled to participate in two road shows on Saturday – one in east Delhi and another in south Delhi – instead of one because of time constraints.
The political playfield in Delhi is of more significance because being in charge of the national capital gives a lot of political heft to the ruling party. The BJP has not been in power in Delhi’s Assembly since 1998. The next 15 years witnessed a long Congress rule under Sheila Dixit and the years after that were marked by the emergence of Kejriwal and AAP.
Kejriwal, who is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, has donned many hats. He was an officer of the Indian Revenue Service – a job that he quit to become a transparency and anti-corruption activist. Kejriwal came to prominence in the national political canvas during the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption Movement in 2011. The next year, the AAP was born as a product of it.
Kejriwal became chief minister of Delhi for the first time in December 2013, with the support of the Congress. But he quit in 49 days having been unable to bring up his flagship anti-corruption bill for discussion in the 70-member Assembly – a decision that earned him the image of an “anarchist”. But his party returned to power in Delhi in 2015 with a majority of its own, winning 67 out of 70 seats. The AAP retained power in India’s capital in 2020, with another chest-thumping victory, bagging 62 seats. While the BJP won rest of the seats in both elections, the Congress drew nil. The AAP then came to power in Punjab in March 2022.
The achievements were highlighted in the speeches of Kejriwal and Mann on Saturday.
“The BJP could not beat him in Delhi’s polls. And then AAP started expanding beyond Delhi. They not only won Punjab but also got MLAs [five of them] in Modi’s own state [Gujarat] in 2022,” said Hema Vaish, a social worker from north Delhi’s Pratap Bagh neighbourhood, who too was part of Saturday’s public gathering at AAP’s head office. “That must have angered them [Modi and Shah] and that must be the only reason for the central agencies to crack down on him [Kejriwal].”
The AAP, however, has not had equally good luck in Lok Sabha polls. For instance, the BJP won all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi in both 2014 and 2019.
This year, the BJP faces a slightly different challenge with the AAP and Congress joining hands and sharing seats among themselves in Delhi to ensure that the opposition votes do not get divided. While the AAP has fielded candidates in four constituencies, Congress is contesting three.
Why Kejriwal matters
The AAP’s fundamental politics depends on a welfare-centric approach that stresses on improving the quality of healthcare facilities and schools, and heavily subsidised services, such as free 200-units electricity every month, free bus rides for women and free supply water up to 20,000 litres every month. The approach seems to have been a big hit in state elections so far.
“His kind of politics is people-centric politics which others have failed in,” said 64-year-old Sher Singh Saini, a resident of east Delhi’s Karkardooma neighbourhood who drives a cab to earn a living. “I save at least Rs 6,000 per month for the subsidies. I know what it means for poor families. And, one must remember, it is the poor people of the country who come out in large numbers to vote. Nothing can stop AAP this time.”
But, as several AAP leaders admit, a large number of people who vote for the AAP in assembly polls seem to go for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Will it change this year?
Khan and Gupta say it will. Vaish and Saini are unsure. But they all agree on one thing: people are concerned over how the central agencies under the Union government are cracking down on opposition leaders which, they say, can make a difference this year. While the BJP calls it part of its ongoing fight against corruption, the Opposition has often termed it “political witch hunt”.
Under the conditions imposed on him by the Supreme Court, Kejriwal cannot visit his office or the Delhi Secretariat during the tenure of his interim bail. The top court further asked Kejriwal to not sign any official file unless absolutely necessary to obtain the Lieutenant Governor’s sanction. Kejriwal has so far asserted that he would run the government from jail – even though the practical implications of the decision remains questionable.
While addressing Saturday’s public gathering, Kejriwal said: “It was a part of the conspiracy of the BJP to force me to resign after my arrest. That’s why they sent me to jail in a fake case. If I had resigned, they would have succeeded… I say even Hemant Soren also should not have resigned.”
Kejriwal’s arrest became the latest incident in a long list of legal offensives by central agencies against opposition leaders ahead of Lok Sabha polls. Hemant Soren, former chief minister of Jharkhand, was arrested on January 31 on charges of corruption in a separate case. He resigned from his post hours before his arrest.
As the crowd dispersed after the speeches, Khan could be seen struggling to make his way out of the lawn towards the outer premises where plates of rice and chickpeas were being served. “It [the bail-related technicalities] does not really matter, you know,” he said. “The biggest thing is that he is back and his presence in the campaign will make a lot of difference. He is an immensely popular leader who is loved across India.”
