New Delhi: Exactly a decade ago, Arvind Kejriwal was at the nucleus of some remarkable political theatre. Having trounced Sheila Dixit in her home constituency of New Delhi in December 2013, taking oath as the Delhi chief minister, and then resigning in less than 50 days, the young former revenue officer had parachuted himself into Varanasi for what was perhaps the most discussed electoral battle in the summer of 2014.
As he today secured interim bail from the Supreme Court, the leader who often was referred to dismissively by some critics as the ‘BJP’s B team’, will soon be beginning his summer offensive against the saffron party, its leaders and its agencies which tried so hard to prevent him from campaigning. We should expect signs of sudden fervour in the AAP’s ranks as well as on the streets of Delhi, which votes a fortnight from now.
50 दिनों के बाद तिहाड़ जेल से बाहर आए CM अरविंद केजरीवाल। https://t.co/wdUhvBFCxJ
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 10, 2024
To decode the Delhi of 2024, one can move to Varanasi where Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, now in jail over a year, were lodged a decade before in a small apartment in the Lanka area of the city. He was a political rookie, his party with little resources, but was unlike most politicians. He had a dismissive air for most “visitor journalists” whom he almost treated as his class enemies. Far from being seen as seeking any ‘favourable’ coverage, a trait even veteran politicians can’t often avoid betraying, he deliberately evinced a message of reserving his attention and affection only for ‘aam aadmi’, making one wonder whether it reflected an authentic heart or a carefully concealed strategy.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
His arrival was received by curiosity, enthusiasm, dismissiveness, even contempt. On December 4, 2013, the polling day in Delhi, sitting chief minister Sheila Dixit had famously asked: “Who is Arvind Kejriwal?” She got the reply within days.
He threw a bigger spectacle next year by taking on Narendra Modi from Varanasi. He lost, but not without making a significant dent and impact. With 209,238 votes, he got more votes than the previous winner Murali Manohar Joshi had polled.
Varanasi that year also had another story going. Congress’s Varanasi candidate in 2009 Ajai Rai got 1.25 lakh votes, while BSP’s Mukhtar Ansari polled 1.87 lakh. Together, their votes far exceeded BJP Joshi’s 2.03 lakh. Ansari was now in jail, but had offered support to Kejriwal. I vividly recall what his elder brother Afzal Ansari told me that summer: “He (Kejriwal) is very arrogant, said I don’t take support from hooligans.”
The next I observed him closely was during the 2015 assembly elections in slums of Delhi. With his trademark muffler and a seemingly nagging cough, one might be forgiven for believing that method acting had assumed a new form. And yet, anyone on the ground in the shivering winters that year instantly knew Kejriwal’s share in the AAP’s unparalleled scorecard of 67/70.
Since then, he has maintained his absolute grip over Delhi. He got zero in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but remained engaged in a constant battle of turf against the overzealous and ever-encroaching Narendra Modi government.
Is 2024 any different? Especially the sentiment that a politician-on-bail may invoke during his campaigns? Balinder Singh, a security guard at a residential apartment in Mayur Vihar, shrugs it off. “He may win the assembly polls, but the PM seat is only for Modiji,” says Singh, a resident of Bihar.
Several residents can’t either forget his failure during the communal violence in 2020 soon after winning another emphatic victory with a tally of 62. Also add his soft-peddling of communal sentiments throughout his tenure as the chief minister.
Amid this, the Congress and AAP have formed an alliance and shared seats in Delhi. In 2019, they polled a total of just 40% votes against the BJP’s nearly 57%; while they were just marginally higher at 48% than the BJP’s 46.4% in 2014.
That adds another distinction to Kejriwal of being perhaps the only chief minister who despite registering two consecutive routs in assembly polls is yet to win a Lok Sabha seat in his state. Having received interim bail till the last date of polling in the country on June 1, it’s yet another Kashi-like contest for Kejriwal.
