Arvind Kejriwal Eyes Windfall Gains from BJP’s Ambedkar Show
AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal at a statue of B R Ambedkar. Image credit X.com @AAPDelhi
AAP in Delhi Eyes Dalit Vote Base Ahead of Assembly Elections
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 21: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been quick to make a sense of the slugfest of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over remarks made by Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah in the Rajya Sabha. The AAP is bracing up for the Delhi Assembly elections in February next year.
The AAP was quick to mount a siege on the BJP headquarters close on the heels of Shah’s swipe at the Congress over Ambedkar. The AAP workforce descended on the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg headquarters of the BJP on Wednesday.
In national politics, the BJP and the Congress are as two big elephants locking their trunks over Dalit politics. But the AAP is currently the giant of the Delhi city politics, facing an immediate challenge in the Assembly elections. The Election Commission is likely to announce the poll date for Delhi Assembly elections in the next few days.
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Political observers by and large concur that Delhi has almost 20 per cent Dalit vote base. Jatav and Valmiki constitute the sizable chunk of Delhi’s Dalit demography. A dozen Assembly seats out of the total 70 are reserved for the scheduled castes in Delhi. One Lok Sabha seats out of the total seven is also reserved for the SCs.
While the BJP and the Congress were visiting police stations and television studios, the AAP poll mascot Arvind Kejriwal was on a blitzkrieg to the Dalit clusters and habitations. The AAP is also mining memes to turn heat on the BJP over Shah’s Ambedkar remarks made in the Rajya Sabha.
Delhi’s political observers argue that the BJP for years has been hoping for a revival of the Congress in Delhi. “If the Congress can revive in Delhi even marginally, the BJP will seriously test the AAP in the national capital,” said a senior BJP functionary.
In heydays of the Congress Rule in Delhi, late Sheila Dikshit commanded strong followings among Muslim-Dalit electorate. But the Congress lost hold over the Muslim-Dalit electoral base, roughly 37 per cent of the total electorate in the national capital.
Kejriwal is now seen fully investing his political capital to make the best benefits of Shah’s Ambedkar jibe at the Congress. Shah has accused the Congress of mass circulation of the clipped video to tarnish his image.
But the discourse is seen to be now slipping out of the control of the BJP. Political observers are debating the extent to which the BJP will be able to counter the Opposition onslaught on Shah’s Ambedkar swipe at the Congress.
The AAP had announced its arrival in the Delhi politics by winning nine of the total 12 reserved Assembly seats in Delhi. The AAP leaders claim that the defensive BJP on Shah’s Ambedkar remarks made in the Rajya Sabha offer an opportunity to assert command over Dalit vote base.
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