kejriwal-faces-uphill-task-in-new-delhi-constituency

What Modi is to India, Kejriwal is to Delhi. Despite being in power for eleven years, the former Delhi Chief Minister continues to retain his popularity among the electorate. Though faced with an uphill task due to strong anti-incumbency, trouncing Kejriwal from New Delhi will not be an easy thing to do for his opponents.  

 

Three-time Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is faced with an uphill task from the New Delhi assembly segment, he has won consecutively for three terms since 2013.

That time, Kejriwal had defeated the legendary sitting Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit by a record margin of 25,864 votes. He secured 44,269 votes against 18,405 by Dikshit. He won the seat again in the 2015 assembly elections improving the margin of victory to 31,523. 

 

He retained the seat in the 2020 elections also by a margin of 21,697 votes. In all these elections he secured more than 50 percent of the total votes polled. 

While the former Delhi Chief Minister continues to remain a favourite in this election also, both the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party have fielded potentially strong candidates. Both are the sons of former Chief Ministers and both are also two-time MPs.

 

The Congress has fielded Sandeep Dikshit, a two-time former MP from East Delhi and the son of Sheila Dikshit. The Congress has carefully chosen Kejriwal’s challenger, as Sandeep knows the assembly segment like the back of his palm as his mother Ms Dikshit represented it for 15 years, the time during which she remained the Chief Minister. 

 

Although the Congress fortunes are at its nadir right now in Delhi, Ms Dikshit is still remembered for the massive development ushered in the national capital during her Chief Ministerial tenure. The metro and flyover network that made commuting in Delhi easier is all attributed to her. Her name is considered synonymous with Delhi's progress and development. 

 

Similarly, the BJP has fielded Parvesh Verma, a two-time MP from West Delhi and the son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma. Parvesh is relatively younger of the three and is an aggressive campaigner. He has always positioned himself stringently against Kejriwal. 

 

Besides, Verma belongs to the all-powerful and influential Jat community, which has a tremendous presence in the entire national capital including the New Delhi assembly segment. Besides, the BJP has continuously managed to retain its voter base in the capital. 

 

On the other hand, Arvind Kejriwal remains the most popular Chief Minister of Delhi after Sheila Dikshit. Kejriwal’s political persona goes beyond the national capital as he has posed himself as a strong challenger to the BJP. Initially, he challenged and chased out the Congress from Delhi, but ultimately the BJP became his main target, as his party is mostly in direct conflict with it (the BJP).

 

Kejriwal built himself and his Aam Aadmi Party on a strong anti-Congress plank during the anti-corruption campaign in 2012 under the banner of India Against Corruption (IAC). He used all the resources and people at his disposal, including Anna Hazare. It is a different story that most of his colleagues and companions during the IAC campaign have left him. And so has Hazare. Or the other way round, as he is accused of having deserted them all.

 

The former Delhi Chief Minister who rose to eminence and prominence on the commitment of transparency, honesty and integrity in public life, feels himself challenged after the allegations of corruption against his party. Although there are no personal charges against him, the public perception that AAP leaders like Manish Sisodia and Satyander Jain were jailed on corruption charges will not be very easy to fight off. 

 

More than the allegations of corruption, it is the eleven-year-old anti-incumbency against his government and him as the Chief Minister, that is a serious challenge. When he resigned as the Chief Minister, over the bail conditions that he cannot visit the Chief Minister’s office or sign files, and appointed Ms Atishi in his place, warding off anti-incumbency was another reason for him to do that. 

 

His past video recordings where he had repeatedly said that he would not be joining electoral politics or that in case he becomes the Chief Minister he will just live in a flat and not take any security are being repeatedly circulated by both, the BJP as well as the Congress.

 

His claims of austerity and modesty have fallen flat on the ground. More so, the recent CAG disclosures about the renovation of his official residence, which reportedly cost a considerable sum of money, has also put him and his party on the defensive, particularly when he had often been arguing for a frugal living standard for the leaders. 

 

Eleven years is a long period not to cause any anti-incumbency. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced it in their third term, although he managed to form the government with the support of allies. Modi’s victory margin from Varanasi also came down substantially and he trailed during initial rounds. 

 

What Modi is to India, Kejriwal is to Delhi. No matter how tough the challenge he faces, it will not be so easy for his opponents to trounce him. After all he is popular for several welfare schemes like free electricity, rationalizing the water distribution and making it almost free, in the national capital and belief among his supporters that he is a man of integrity despite corruption charges levelled against him.

 

The New Delhi assembly constituency result may be interesting, but it may not be necessarily unpredictable.