Five reasons why this Delhi election reeks of desperation

Barack Obama BJP's star campaigner

US President Barack Obama will be the de-facto star campaigner for the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections. Obama will be the guest of honour at the Republic Day parade on January 26, which is just 12 days before Delhi goes to vote on February 7. Those of us who have seen the visits of Bill Clinton and George W Bush would recall the tremendous hype that surrounds the visit of an American president, with everything from the food being served to the president to the arrangements made for his dog, making news. If the hype was overwhelming in the pre-Modi era, imagine what Modi and his publicity team are going to unleash this time on. Getting Obama for the Republic Day parade is no doubt a major coup for the Modi government. We can only expect his publicity team to make the Obama-Modi meeting a spectacle for Delhi and the rest of India. In Delhi, the BJP would showcase Modi as a leader who is taking India to greater heights in the international stage as opposed to the "Anarchist AAP" and "Corrupt Congress".

Do or die for AAP

Come February 7, Arvind Kejriwal would either be on his way to becoming the next chief minister of Delhi and the main challenger to Modi, or a political has-been who had once promised to make it big. Congress can still survive a defeat in Delhi. AAP cannot. If AAP doesn't come to power here, it's only relevance at the national level will be as an opposition party in Delhi and a marginal player in Punjab. Of course the party will still continue to challenge the BJP on social media, but that in itself will hardly matter in the larger political context. Cliched as it may sound, it is a do or die election for AAP. Kejriwal and his party are acutely aware of this and they are pulling out all stops to give the BJP a run for its money (which is something the saffron party is rather well endowed in). Despite being a younger and poorer party, the AAP has been able to match the BJP in terms of posters, hoardings and advertisements. And whenever it fails to compete with the BJP because of shortage of funds, AAP will try to make up for it through its army of volunteers. In the coming days, Kejriwal is expected to address each and every assembly constituency in the city, twice over if possible.

Congress puts its best foot forward

By declaring Ajay Maken as the chairman of its campaign committee, the Congress has made its intentions clear. The party is not going let AAP take over its support base without a fight. After Sheila Dikshit moved towards semi-retirement, Maken is the Congress's best known face in Delhi. As Delhi's transport minister under Dikshit, Maken presided over the national capital's move towards CNG. He also had impressive stints as a minister in the UPA government before becoming the Congress general secretary in-charge for communication. It was a tough assignment, given that the Congress's popularity has hit rock bottom, yet Maken has managed to make a mark. The Congress knows that if AAP wins Delhi, Kejriwal will become the main challenger to Modi at the national level, which in the long run can make Congress irrelevant. By putting forward a credible face like Maken, and reportedly fielding him from an AAP-held seat like Sadar Bazar, the Congress is trying to prevent the AAP from coming to power. It is well known that the AAP has captured Congress's support base among the poor, the Dalits and minorities. So any improvement in the Congress vote share, would be directly at AAP's expense.

A battle of invectives

Dilliwalas love spouting the occasional invective, so why shouldn't our elections have their share of gaali-galauj? It all began with BJP minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's "raamzaada-haraamzaada" remark at a political meeting in the city in December. Not to be left behind, Congress MLA from Sultanpur Majra Jai Kishan called AAP and BJP "illegitimate sons. But even if one leaves aside the swear-words, the Delhi campaign has been vicious. Last Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped just short of calling Arvind Kejriwal a Naxal. In its official posters and ads, the BJP keeps referring to Kejriwal as "Nakaam Aadmi" and "Bhagoda".  

Communal polarisation

Delhi has never witnessed communal tensions for nearly two decades. But in October last year, riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out in Trilokpuri. On the eve of the 2013 Vidhan Sabha elections, the same area had witnessed tensions between Hindus and Sikhs, but at a lesser scale. The AAP, which had won from Trilokpuri in 2013, accused the BJP candidate of being involved in last year's riots. In Bawana, a Hindutva group threatened to disrupt the Muharram procession, sparking tensions in that area as well. This is probably the first time in decades that parts of Delhi will be voting under the shadow of communal tensions.