AAP Fears Three Poll Ghosts in Delhi Elections
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal with former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav Image credit X.com
Delhi Election: Arvind Kejriwal Faces Test of Survival in Poll Laboratory
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 4: Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal failed to best record of his predecessor Sheila Dikshit on length of tenure. Kejriwal fell short of almost four years against Dikshit’s 15 years at the helm of Delhi.
After 15 years, Dikshit, who seemed irreplaceable in Delhi politics, was blown away by the gust set off by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). In 2013, Dikshit looked tired, politically.
In 2025, Kejriwal seems fatigued. His middle-class image of 2013 is now dull. His appearances suggest him walking out of a spa.
The AAP supporters are livid in Seemapuri Assembly seat at Kejriwal. He gave the party ticket to the Congress turncoat Veer Singh Dhingan. The AAP had made several allegations against Dhingan in 2013 when he was an MLA of the constituency.
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The AAP is in a disarray in Delhi. The party has too many horses pulling carts against each other. Political observers concur that the AAP is now battling ills that afflict the BJP in Delhi and also the Congress.
Kejriwal’s top strength lies in firing the political aspirations of the AAP workers. He mainstreamed the fringe in politics. But now Kejriwal is walking the path of the BJP and the Congress.
The people in the national capital also appear exhausted with an almost lame-duck government. Insiders in the Delhi government state that the administration led by the AAP became lame-duck almost 18 months away. The status may not change even if the AAP wins. This is finding traction among the people.
Dikshit also battled multiplicity of authorities while at the helm of the government. But she found both Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh governments at the Centre, 1998-2013, receptive to her concerns.
Besides, bureaucrats admired Dikshit. She was respectful of the bureaucrats. The Congress MLAs during Dikshit’s tenure rued that she had been running a bureaucratic government.
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She was well aware of the political backlash over implementing the BRT Corridor. Yet, she backed then Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta. “I will rather see the project failing then not even trying,” a determined Mehta would often tell reporters.
But bureaucrats now in Delhi carry rule pocket book in their pockets and flash when demands are made by the AAP ministers. Cabinet meetings in Delhi belong to rarity.
The determination of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win the Delhi elections is also ringing alarm bells in the AAP camp. Earlier, the BJP consoled party workers that the AAP had been into the Congress vote bases in other states.
But now the AAP is a direct threat to the BJP, for another big win Delhi for Kejriwal will pave a fertile ground for the next five years.
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