Delhi elections: Muffler season is back
It's the time of the year when mercury slips into ancient rhythm to merge into fall and the fast-approaching winter. The one that leaves teeth to chatter. What do we need most? Muffler baba.
Former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who turned the ubiquitous winter accessory into an almost Gandhi spectacle-like totem, is warming up for action as polls to the Delhi Assembly loom with the Supreme Court squarely dressing down lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung for not ensuring an elected government was in power in the city from which the country is ruled. Jung may have taken the beating for his master, the BJP-led NDA government, which is shivering in its skin-coloured toed-socks to take on the aforesaid Muffler baba who went to sleep on the cold roads of Delhi to bring errant Delhi Police officers to book. And he also cleared files from the barricades, then.
The Modi wave is at stake here, or so this writer thinks. What if the mighty tsunami lands ultra-softly on a people eager for governance and who have taken to Kejriwal's AAP like the crinkling firewood to the flame. The success of Maharashtra and Haryana notwithstanding, the BJP will stand a lot to lose if it doesn't sweep the polls, which may be announced sooner following the SC finger-wagging. It's both for the Delhi BJP: Fear of Kejriwal and performance anxiety. How can Sachin Tendulkar get out to an anarchist no-baller, feels the Delhi BJP.
For Kejriwal, it's a Javed Miandad moment. Swing or die. If he doesn't make contact with the people and convert his goodwill into votes this time, the AAP will shed leaves faster than an eucalyptus as winter creeps forward. And if he gets second-time lucky in Delhi, despite his loss to PM Narendra Modi in Varanasi, the AAP leader can hope his party finally grows out of its stillborn condition.
Too many balls are up in the air as the winds of change wait for the Election Commission to get into the frame. Kejriwal, this writer is sure, has the muffler ready after a visit to the drycleaners to brave the cold Delhi streets and the rampaging-yet-wary Delhi BJP campaign. Get some warm peanuts. It's going to be fun ahead.