How BJP has developed new political narrative to take on Arvind Kejriwal in upcoming MCD elections

Aam Aadmi Party launched a massive campaign against Delhi’s municipal corporations after winning the 2020 Assembly Elections in Delhi. The Bharatiya Janata Party was accused of engaging in widespread corruption during its more than 15 years of MCD rule. After two years, the BJP has successfully reversed the political narrative towards the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP.

Earlier, the BJP ended AAP’s campaign of poor MCD governance. The decision by the Centre to reunite three corporations came after this. Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that the Kejriwal-led AAP government had a stepmotherly attitude toward the three MCDs during the debate in both Houses of Parliament about the decision to merge the MCDs. Shah also claimed that the AAP government cut off funding to the MCDs as a result of this attitude, which had disastrous financial effects.

AAP’s overconfidence

The Aam Aadmi Party’s leaders expressed great confidence just a few months ago that they will win the MCD elections. But today, a lot has changed, and the leaders in Delhi are uncertain about their chances of success. A sizable portion of Aam Aadmi Party leaders holds the opinion that the party’s campaign against the BJP was launched too soon, exposing their political stance to the saffron party. Within a month of winning the Delhi assembly elections, the AAP made it clear that their focus in their campaign against the BJP-led MCD would be on corruption and a lack of resources. Today, many AAP leaders believe this allowed the BJP to course correct and today the party has no new agenda to take on them.

A senior AAP functionary who did not want to be identified said, “We should not have put out our entire game plan against the BJP-led MCD so early. The BJP understood that we would attack them with allegations of corruption and the non-payment of their employees’ salaries. All three MCDs have been combined today, and they are blaming us for everything.”

Similar to this, there is a growing perception that the Aam Aadmi Party overestimated its chances of winning the Punjab assembly elections. A senior leader made the point that the AAP did not understand that the BJP takes every election very seriously and is always prepared to go to any length. An AAP leader said, “We really did not imagine that they will bring a bill so early to merge the MCDs.”

Corruption boomerang

According to the Delhi BJP leaders, the central leadership ordered the party unit to expose the corruption of the Aam Aadmi Party. The BJP-led MCD has been the target of numerous corruption allegations since the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP took office in Delhi, but the Aam Aadmi Party has not been able to back up any of these claims. The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, has only written to the Central government or the L-G to demand investigations into a small number of allegations of corruption in the BJP-ruled MCD. However, the AAP has not taken any concrete action to address the allegations of graft.

The BJP, on the other hand, took the issue of corruption seriously and gave it back to the AAP. A BJP leader observed, “The accusations of massive financial inconsistencies on several policies have engulfed the party that was elected on promises of the corruption-free government and that used to accuse the BJP of corruption from the very beginning. The Arvind Kejriwal administration’s numerous acts of corruption, most notably the Delhi excise policy, have been called out by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is the main suspect in the excise policy corruption and Delhi minister Satyendar Jain is in jail due to corruption allegations.”

The Aam Aadmi Party’s leadership is perplexed about how to explain the reality on the ground in the face of the growing corruption allegations against the party. The MCD elections would be much different from the Assembly elections in Gujarat or other states, according to several Aam Aadmi Party leaders, because in this election local grassroots organisation and communication are crucial. An AAP leader opined on the condition of anonymity, “The BJP is attempting to discredit the Aam Aadmi Party and harm our reputation’ In the MCD elections, we will need to refute these accusations with evidence because merely denying them will not be helpful.”

Gameplan

The Bharatiya Janata party in Delhi has planned for a mega mobilisation campaign of the booth level workers. The central leadership of the party has already made it clear that this election is crucial to them. Firstly the central leadership has taken the stand to merge all the MCDs and pass the bill. Therefore, the BJP has a huge stake. Similarly, the party has been running the MCD for the last several decades and that is why this election is crucial to them. Lastly, by winning this election the BJP wants to send a clear message to the Aam Aadmi Party that their image of non-corrupt and governance centrism are all fake.

The BJP leaders confirmed that on 16 October the party president JP Nadda will communicate with the booth workers at a conference which will be held at the Ramlila Ground in Delhi. In this conference, the BJP president will lay down the game plan of the party in terms of the MCD elections. According to the BJP sources, the central leadership has informed the party that the election is likely to be held during December and January. Significantly this is also the time when the Gujarat elections are likely to be held.

According to the BJP leaders in Delhi after the delimitation of the MCD wards now there are more wards which are Muslim-populated. A senior BJP leader said, “There are specific areas in Delhi where the BJP is weaker than other areas. Firstly we are focusing on those wards and also on the areas which are Muslim-populated. We understand that these two areas will need our focus.”

Booth level focus

According to the senior BJP leaders, there are five karyakartas in each ward. The booth president is followed by two local senior party members, a woman, and a youth representative in this group of five. These individuals will conduct door-to-door campaigns for the party in each of the wards.

A senior leader said, “Right now along with the campaign we have also asked our workers to gather information about the Aam Aadmi Party‘s local leadership and to gather feedback on the local BJP councillor as well. The central leadership has made it very clear that we will not do any consideration when it comes to the distribution of tickets. If any member has a bad reputation then they will not get tickets.”

For the upcoming corporation elections, the BJP sources claimed that the party has already appointed over one lakh workers who are working at the booth level. BJP leaders added that the party has already contacted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah about holding rallies before the MCD elections. We anticipate that the home minister will speak at a few rallies before the elections. But a senior leader said, “We do not know whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji will get time to campaign.”

Issues in focus 

The Bharatiya Janata arty is currently concentrating on a significant number of issues relating to the Aam Aadmi Party, according to party leaders in Delhi. The key talking point in the upcoming MCD elections will be the issue of corruption and the accusations against the deputy chief minister, health minister, and other senior Aam Aadmi Party officials. The party has also made the decision to criticise the Aam Aadmi Party for allegedly mishandling the implementation of a number of policies.

According to BJP sources, the party will base its claims in this regard on a number of investigation orders given by lieutenant governor Vinay Kumar Saxena in opposition to a number of Aam Aadmi Party government policy decisions.

The BJP will also talk about the alleged anti-Hindu oath taken during the conversion to Buddhism event which sparked a massive row. BJP raised this matter immediately and pointed out that certain section of this oath has hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and then cabinet minister Rajendra Pal Gautam was also present in the ceremony and the BJP‘s constant protest led to Gautam’s resignation. According to the BJP sources, the party will also highlight this issue and expose the entire Hindu sentiment of Kejriwal during the MCD election campaign. Rajendra Pal Gautam, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and a former cabinet minister, attended the ceremony as well. As a result of the BJP’s persistent protest, Gautam resigned. During the MCD election campaign, the BJP will reportedly also draw attention to this matter and expose Kejriwal’s entire anti-Hindu sentiment.

The author is an independent journalist, columnist and former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre. He tweets @sayantan_gh. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.

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