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Jo desh ka mood hai, wahi Delhi ka bhi mood hai. 
Satya vachan, Modiji!

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Sushil Pandit
Sushil PanditFeb 02, 2015 | 12:14

Jo desh ka mood hai, wahi Delhi ka bhi mood hai. 
Satya vachan, Modiji!

The AAP has only Arvind Kejiriwal to offer. The entire thrust of the AAP's campaign, from the day one, has been "5 saal, Kejiriwal"! Obviously, they should play to their strength. And, they are.

The BJP has a sledgehammer in Narendra Modi. It first decided to rely on its, now almost routine, Modi-led strategy. They have benefited handsomely with it in the preceding assembly polls in four states. Delhi was considered no different.

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After almost a month of sticking to this strategy, suddenly, it was as if the gears were changed and Kiran Bedi was pitch forked to rival Kejiriwal. Kiran Bedi was not a bad choice at all. In fact, had she led the 2013 campaign, BJP would not have had to fight this election all over again. But, if she had to lead this campaign, she should have been inducted much earlier and prepared for it. It is the abruptness of her launch, almost like a trick, that is looking a bit awkward and takes a bit away from a great choice, and a huge strength, that she is.

Having made her the spearhead, it was the BJP's task to turn it into a Kiran Bedi election. But, instead of playing to its strength, BJP seems to be playing to AAP's strength. By targeting Kejiriwal in advertisements and speeches, BJP is turning it into a Kejiriwal election; "Kejiriwal or not" instead of "Kiran Bedi or not".

Kejiriwal could not afford large press ads, BJP seems to have obliged him by putting him in their rather large press advertisements, even if as a caricature. This is an avoidable mileage to their arch rival seeking desperately to engage with them. The BJP has fallen for ArKe's debate-bait. Though not for a conventional face-off with Kiran Bedi, but certainly in the campaign-content. He should thank BJP for such generosity. It has all the makings of a fatal flaw.

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Finally, the BJP seems to be misreading the challenge it is facing. ArKe led AAP is not just another political party that they are used to fighting with. AAP has succeeded in convincing a critical mass, in Delhi at least, that it represents an alternative to conventional politics. "Conventional" here means what the Congress and its clones have done since the independence and what the BJP has begun to increasingly look like. The emerging aspirational India is outraged by this politics. It rejects the mediocrity it harbours. It abhors the system of pelf and patronage it engenders. Modi's emergence, from this very conventional politics, is seen by this emerging India, as almost a miracle. Modi is seen as someone who emerged from it by defying it and not as a product of it. That is why, 2014 was a mandate for Modi, not so much for the BJP. And, whenever and wherever Modi challenges this "conventional" politics, by keeping even the local BJP on a tight leash, he will succeed.

In Delhi, he has to deal with Kejiriwal. ArKe does not look like a conventional politician. He does not speak or act like one. He does not look for safe seats for himself. He is not seen striking deals, within and outside the AAP, to placate powerful interests. He chooses his attire, style and issues, and stubbornly sticks to them, even when made fun of. He looks disarmingly skinny, sickly and vulnerable. He is seen as someone up against huge odds and very powerful interests. And, above all, he has been seen working very, very hard. He has succeeded in cultivating a very compelling image of himself. This image helps him get away with various inconsistencies that the BJP is so laboriously harping upon.

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A bi-polar contest due to a total collapse of Congress will further help him. His support base is disparate. The poor in the slums and resettlement colonies as well as the indignant among the middle class who are cautiously weighing and watching him; class 3 and 4 government servants as well as the activist youth who brought the city to a virtual halt during the nirbhaya agitation; almost all the usual BJP-sceptics like the Muslims but also a significant number of Sikhs and traders. Barring the usual BJP sceptics, it is not so much the demographic profile of the AAP voters that binds them together. It is their hope rooted in alternative politics. Understandably, it is this very hope that Modi raised in them in April 2014. Having elected him to power with a comfortable majority, they seem to have given him what he needed. For the lack of any better alternative, a Modi led BJP will keep reaping on this hope in the States too. But Delhi is different.  Delhi has to choose between an already elected Modi and awaiting his turn Kejiriwal. 


Delhi is visibly pregnant. Treating it as a case of gas or common constipation will not help.

Last updated: February 02, 2015 | 12:14
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