Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Poses A National Challenge To PM Narendra Modi

From a popular anti-corruption star, a populist leader to battling corruption charges himself, the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case marks another dramatic episode in the large arc of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief.

Kejriwal shot to fame a decade ago as an anti-corruption activist — making Anna Hazare sit on two high profile hunger strikes in Delhi in 2011 — demanding a Jan Lokpal to rein in corruption and accusing “all politicians” of corruption. With day-long media coverage, Anna and Kejriwal became a sensation, denting the then UPA government in the process. However, to great extent, BJP with a large organization—the party had had been very cautious at the time of Anna movement—took full advantage of the anti-Congress mood in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with Narendra Modi as its PM candidate.

Meanwhile, Kejriwal formed AAP with a promise of leading a clean government that will work for the people. He tasted early success in Delhi in the 2013 assembly elections—winning 28 seats out of 70 and defeating sitting chief minister Sheila Dikshit of the Congress. The BJP got 32 seats in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal but could not garner a majority. AAP threw the first surprise by becoming CM with the support of the Congress, which had eight seats. Forty-nine days later, he dramatically resigned on the ground that the Delhi Assembly was stone walling his Jan Lokpal Bill.

Kejriwal now took a ‘national’ turn, deciding to contest Lok Sabha poll against Narendra Modi from Varanasi in 2014. He lost by a margin of about 2.7 lakh votes, but stood second, bagging 2.09- lakh votes. This raised his profile further.

Early in 2015, AAP posted a spectacular result in the Delhi assembly polls, winning 67 of 70 seats, with the BJP winning just three and the Congress drawing a blank. Kejriwal threw out Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav from the party within months of the victory on grounds of “anti-party activities”. Bhushan decried this as dictatorship, and said the party has been reduced to a ‘Khap’.

Kejriwal’s image was fast changing from that of a democrat to someone who wanted to control the party through favourities. However, the power and water subsidies continued – he claimed to have improved the condition of government schools and the health care system in Delhi from 2014 to 2019 – thus becoming a populist leader focusing on service-delivering with ideology agnosticism. The Lokpal demand gradually disappeared altogether,

Despite his popularity, he could not win a single seat in Delhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with BJP sweeping all seven. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly polls, AAP again won Delhi, bagging 62 seats. The BJP won just eight.

But that wasn’t all. Kejriwal was able to expand beyond Delhi and post a stunning victory in Punjab in 2022 assembly polls winning 92 of 118 seats and reducing the Congress to just18. He also made a dent in Gujarat, winning five seats in the assembly polls out of 182, with the Congress winning 17. The BJP swept the polls with 156 seats.

This makes the AAP a possible future challenge to the BJP, which is right now in pole position. But the BJP leadership has shown it is willing to nip the party in the bud before it expands further by attacking its only leader of stature for alleged corruption. Delhi Chief Minister was finally arrested on March 21 night by the Enforcement Directorate of the Modi government and put in ED custody till March 28. The legal battle will continue, but the moot question is how the people of Delhi and Punjab will react in the ballot box at the time of the coming Lok Sabha elections. (IPA Service)