Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) national convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been holding interactive sessions with party workers in the national capital, telling them about some dos and don’ts they have to observe when they reach out to the public ahead of the Assembly election scheduled for February 2025.
“Listen to all that the people have to say patiently. Do not try to counter them. Tell them politely, ‘you are right, we will make amends’ or ‘we will take care of the shortcomings’,” said Kejriwal at one such interaction.
He also told the party workers that this is going to be an extremely tough election. “Please be aware that the coming election will test our grit. Many of you are not full-time workers. I request you to take leave from your office for the next three months. We have to immerse ourselves completely into these elections. It may be the toughest we have faced so far,” he said.
Kejriwal speaks softly at the meetings, smiles often and comes across as a wise elder in the family offering sane counsel. There is no grandstanding. This is a Kejriwal who knows the Assembly election in Delhi will be the toughest he and his party have contested so far. He openly admits to it. Out on bail in the excise policy case, he has already said this election is about seeking the certificate of honesty from the people’s court.
Kejriwal is clearly on the back foot. He knows the allegations of corruption against him and his party colleagues, especially the excise policy case, have robbed the AAP of its image of being a party with a difference. He also knows that his party has been in power in Delhi for more than 10 years now, and there is bound to be dissatisfaction on the ground and a willingness on part of the voter to explore other options.
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Yet, he continues to be the AAP’s best bet in Delhi. He remains the face of the party, its main crowd-puller and its primary decision-maker. But there is a realisation among the party’s strategists that his image has taken a beating and that explains Kejriwal’s announcement at a recent interaction with party workers that sitting MLAs can hope to get tickets again only if they have lived up to the expectations of the people.
This shows that Kejriwal knows his campaign alone will not be enough this time to help the party win. The image of the local candidate, and any dissatisfaction against a sitting MLA, would be factors that his popularity alone may not be enough to override.
A shrewd politician, he has been quick to respond to the prevailing political situation and adapt to it. That explains the different versions of Kejriwal that Delhi has seen since 2013 when the AAP first contested an election in the capital.
The surprise haul
“Arvind Kejriwal is under tremendous pressure as the BJP is using Delhi as a laboratory to test the efficacy of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to corner its political opponents. He is on the back foot because he has to deal with the bouncers thrown at him by the BJP. He cannot do that by being on the front foot,” says Abhay Kumar Dubey, Professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
In 2013, he was the quintessential aam aadmi who had entered politics in a bid to challenge the corrupt political class. He was the “muffler man” (dubbed so because of the muffler he wrapped around his head and neck to protect himself from Delhi’s winters as he sat on a dharna or held a protest). An activist-turned-politician, he had an angry and intense look about him as he challenged established politicians.
He stood against then-Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 election and defeated her as his party won a surprise haul of 24 seats. Kejriwal took oath as Chief Minister, but his government lasted only 48 days. Kejriwal resigned over the failure of his government to get the Jan Lokpal Bill passed; he accused the Congress and the BJP of colluding with industrialist Mukesh Ambani to thwart the proposed legislation.
In the 2015 Assembly election, the AAP’s slogan was “Paanch Saal Kejriwal’, conveying the idea that this time around, the government would last a full five years. In his public meetings, Kejriwal would apologise to the people for having resigned in his first term. This strategy was developed in response to the feedback that the people of Delhi were not happy with Kejriwal’s decision to put in his papers.
He assured the people he was not going anywhere. In that election, the AAP won an astounding mandate of 67 out of 70 seats in the Assembly. The AAP proclaimed that the muffler man had defeated the mighty BJP that had deployed all its top leaders in its campaign in Delhi.
No longer ‘muffler man’
In the 2020 Assembly election, Kejriwal came across as a smiling “dutiful son”, who had helped the elderly in the capital go on pilgrimage, or the dependable “elder brother” who was helping families in financial distress save money through government’s schemes, especially free electricity, water supply and bus travel for women.
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The muffler vanished, and with that the image of an activist-politician out to change the system. In its place was a smiling Kejriwal, a family man who empathised with the problems of the common man. The message conveyed was that he was using his position of power to help ordinary families tide over their economic problems and would continue to do so. So, the party’s slogan in that election became “Acchhe Beete Paanch Saal, Lage Raho Kejriwal”.
According to political analyst Harjeshwar Pal Singh, Kejriwal is battling a huge image problem in this election. “When he had come into politics, Kejriwal projected himself as a humble, common man and as an incorruptible “kattar imaandar”. His appearance—characterised by oversized shirts and chappals—has changed; he now lives in palatial houses and moves amidst big security. His ‘honest politician’ image has suffered due to the excise policy matter and other cases,” he said.
Over the past decade, Kejriwal and the AAP have come a long way in Delhi and beyond. As they face their toughest election so far in the capital, the former Chief Minister goes to the people, not with confident strides but with folded hands and his head bent in appeal.
