Delhi elections 2015 results: How Arvind Kejriwal retrieved a near impossible situation and scripted

TNN

New Delhi, 11 Feb 2015: Politics can be as brutal as boxing. When the punches, jabs and barbs sting your face, there’s nowhere to hide. No one cares about the bruises on your body, or the knocks your ego takes. When you fall everybody cheers. Sometimes, just sometimes, there’s a twist in the tale. Down for the count, a boxer staggers back to his feet. He draws from a secret reserve of strength, rains unexpected blows on his rival and pulls off the improbable.

 

Arvind Kejriwal has done something like that. Slaughtered in last summer’s national polls, pummelled by the press, mocked by rivals and largely shunned by the public, the AAP mascot fashioned one of the most romantic comebacks in India’s new-millennium politics. AAP 67, BJP+ 3, Congress 0 — a knockout. As his saffron rivals might say, it’s that upadravi (disruptive) gotra at work.

 

In 2013, Kejriwal was the poster boy of a brave new India. He was the cri de coeur of commoners against the entrenched political elite, the anti-graft crusader who had brought that dirty eight-letter word, idealism, back in politics. In doing so, the former IRS officer had underlined the possibility of real alternative politics, of an engagement beyond the BJP-Congress binary, of the idea of another India. The AAP’s failure to win a seat in Delhi in LS polls (although its vote share rose marginally) was a body blow to every citizen who felt the party was the agency of an experiment that could fundamentally alter the way politics was conducted in the country.

 

Five-year plan 

 

The beauty of Kejriwal’s second coming is that few expected it; certainly not last year’s opinion polls. When the campaign began, BJP resembled a juggernaut. Under the Modi-Shah combine, the saffron party attained an LS majority when everybody thought coalition governments were inevitable. Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra — no bridge was too far for the duo. With Congress comatose and AAP supposedly reeling from the shock loss, the Delhi battle seemed a walk in the park. Early opinion polls showed BJP in pole position.

 

Senior AAP members say if anyone was certain the party could make a comeback, it was Kejriwal. "After we resigned last year, stories were planted that the party is falling apart. Some of us were disappointed. Arvind was sure it wouldn’t happen. He radiates positivity," says party leader Manish Sisodia.

 

 

Senior member Ashutosh says everyone in AAP was feeling low after the LS setback. "Arvind’s view was: Nothing is impossible. He was clear people were angry with AAP only because we quit the government, not for any adverse reason like corruption. He was positive our party had earned goodwill and enjoyed high approval for what it did in its 49-day rule."

 

What followed under Kejriwal was a masterclass in grassroots politics. "The three main critical views against AAP were identified. We were regarded as bhagora (not interested in governance), too ambitious (aspiring for national prominence without doing local work) and addicted to dharnas (habitual agitationists)," says Ashutosh.

 

The idea was to address these issues. Kejriwal was clear about going to the people and apologizing for quitting. "People had to be assured that the party had the vision and desire to govern. We’d first coined a slogan: Dilli kahe dil se, Kejriwal phir se. But it didn’t address the bhagora issue. So we came up with Paanch saal Kejriwal. This was a statement of intent: We’re here for the long haul," he says.

 

 

No magic bullet

 

This time AAP decided to go beyond the Jan Lokpal Bill as a magic cure for all ills. Delhi Dialogues was launched in November. The idea was to create a participatory manifesto following exchanges between experts and common people — professionals, homemakers, youth, residents in JJ clusters and unauthorized colonies — across the city. Dharnas were dumped.

 

AAP’s preparation had depth and detail. Kejriwal attended 110 public meetings. Sources say it was his idea to posit Jagdish Mukhi’s face as BJP’s CM candidate on the back of autos early on in the campaign though the party had made no such announcement. Kejriwal’s cough and muffler had turned into a viral joke. But a cool social media poster titled, Muflerman (sic) Returns: The Corruption Hunter, a take-off from the Hollywood movie, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, turned the joke on its head.

 

 

In the national elections, Modi spoke of development. Kejriwal’s tirade was more personal. Now roles were reversed. Kejriwal focused on the electorate rather than BJP and forced the rival to a more extreme and negative position. Among other things, he was called "a bandar", "a thief", "toxic" and worse. The AAP leader wasn’t pugnacious but didn’t back off when pushed.

 

When Arun Jaitley accused AAP of taking hawala money, Kejriwal dared him to arrest him. It was truth or dare. Kejriwal won the face-off.

 

Social commentator Santosh Desai says this election saw a very different and more substantive Kejriwal. "He avoided confrontation, negative strategies and overtly aggressive postures. He focused on his strengths such as the positive public memory of his 49-day government. People were disappointed and angry with Kejriwal for shirking his duty. Which is different from not being worthy of it. Even his campaign against Kiran Bedi was handled with finesse, restraint, and without malice," says Desai.

 

"It’s a feat building a movement on the middle-class desire for change, their anger against corruption. Then losing out in the national polls, rebuilding your party, reformulating strategy and defeating a party that looked unbeatable," he adds.

 

People connect

 

On the last day of campaigning, Kejriwal’s grey Innova and his kaafila stop at a red light near North Block. Two young men on bicycles spot him. They rush with cellphones for selfies. It’s not a meeting of two voters and an ex-CM. With Kejriwal, there’s no fear or pedestal. The distance between a political leader and an ordinary citizen collapses.

 

A little later, at an informal meeting with journalists, washing down a parantha with chai, the Magsaysay winner smiles and says, "People are greeting me during the campaign as if I’m CM." People are prescient. It is said BJP president Amit Shah had never lost an election he supervised. Arvind Kejriwal showed that there’s always a first.