In the first half of last year when the Modi juggernaut rolled out once again, the BJP swept Delhi winning all the 7 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections. But a few months later, when Delhi went to polls last week to elect a legislative assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won 62 of 70 seats leaving only 8 for the BJP. This comes on top of the 67 of the 70 that AAP won in the last assembly polls five years ago.
So what happened in the intervening period leading to a reversal of the Lok Sabha results? There is where the story is. Delhi is a state but not a full-fledged one. The Delhi government thus has no power to maintain law and order and by implications does not control the police. Maintaining law and order is the prerogative of the central government. Thus the Delhi government is only responsible for local development and the electorate in Delhi knows this well. Thus in a poll for Delhi assembly, the voter knows what to vote for.
But BJP and Amit Shah while asking for votes in the Delhi elections canvassed on national issues: Terrorism, danger from Pakistan, etc. In fact, it roped in Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of UP, who spoke of biryani, etc. in his speeches and tried to raise the communal temperature. While all this could have potentially worked in a national election, it fell flat in a local election. Similarly, Shaheen Bagh and the issues relating to Citizenship Amendment Act which restricts migrations from Bangladesh failed to make an impact on Delhi voters in a local election. The voters were looking for a party that gave them local amenities efficiently and cheaply: whether it is water and power supply or medical services and motely public services. In its wisdom, the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal had realised that and had focused on efficiently delivering these services and were perceived by the electorate in doing this. For this they were amply rewarded by the voters. It is likely that the BJP also realised what the elections were all about but after some false starts came to the conclusion that it would not be possible to beat AAP on local issues. Thus it zeroed in on national issues. But in the end, the national issues don’t work in a local election and thus the BJP was routed. It may not be wrong to assert that the very same voters who had voted for the BJP in the 2019 polls plumped for the AAP in the local polls.
BJP leaders are seen as outsiders
The BJP was also hampered by the paucity of leaders who were perceived as locals. The BJP as the Jana Sangh had grown and expanded nationwide from Delhi. Its then top leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, although not originally from Delhi had settled in the city since late 1950s and were seen as locals from Delhi. But the present top leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are not from Delhi and are seen as outsiders from the point of view of the city. To compound the problem, BJP’s local chief Manoj Tiwari is from Varanasi. Although his appointment is to cater to the large number of voters who were originally from eastern UP and Bihar and have now settled in Delhi, this has not worked. For one Manoj Tiwari although an MP from North East Delhi is not seen and perceived as a local. This in a city where even voters who have migrated from outside after a few years start feeling as strongly for Delhi like a person who may have stayed in Delhi for two generations.
In the mid-1990s, the Congress -- out of local Delhi politics for over a decade -- made a comeback riding on the court tails of Shiela Dikshit. The lady who was married into a prominent political family from UP (her father-in-law Uma Shankar Dikshit was an important Congress leader) was originally from Chandni Chowk in Delhi where she grew up as Shiela Kapoor. Under her tenure as chief minister, the Congress ruled Delhi for 15 years till 2013. Shiela Dikshit effectively used her dual identity to appeal to the Delhi voters.
With her death the Congress lost an effective local face, a loss that the grand old party could never make up. Thus many voters who exercised their franchise for Congress shifted to the AAP. This accounts for the nil registered by Congress in the Delhi polls (although party sources are trying to argue through informal channels that it deliberately kept its campaigning at a low level to assist the AAP in defeating the BJP; for the Congress, they argue, the BJP is the main enemy and so AAP is the enemy of the enemy and thus a friend).
In the end, AAP won because Kejriwal realised where the BJP attack could come from. He realised that as Congress party is attacked as a party of minorities, AAP could be similarly targeted. So while concentrating on development, Kejriwal signalled that he was a good Hindu. In the midst of the polls he went to the well-known Hanuman temple near Connaught Place in New Delhi to seek the blessings of the deity there. He also skirted the issue of Shaheen Bagh protests which could be potentially used by the BJP to attack him and label him as an agent of Pakistan. Kejriwal also successfully portrayed that being a good Hindu does not necessarily mean that one has to be anti-minority.
Kingshuk Nag is an author and a journalist.
Read his columns here.
First Published: Feb 12, 2020 2:36 PM IST
Check out our in-depth Market Coverage, Business News & get real-time Stock Market Updates on CNBC-TV18. Also, Watch our channels CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar Live on-the-go!
Supreme Court refuses plea seeking 6-year poll ban on PM
May 14, 2024 7:14 PM
Punjab Lok Sabha elections 2024: A look at BJP candidates
May 14, 2024 7:06 PM
Lok Sabha polls: EC disposes of 90% complaints related to MCC violations
May 14, 2024 4:45 PM
Jharkhand Lok Sabha elections 2024: All about INDIA bloc candidates
May 14, 2024 2:52 PM