As the BJP’s spectacular Delhi victory has demonstrated, the party is on a roll after a setback in the general elections. Securing 48 of 70 seats in the state assembly and defeating the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which managed just 22 seats, the victory is a major boost for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his party lost its outright majority in last year’s national elections.
AAP’s popularity stemmed from its welfare schemes, including free water and electricity, but BJP countered with promises of cash support for women, pensions for the elderly, and subsidies on cooking gas. However, the import of the Delhi victory for the BJP’s and the AAP’s stunning loss has far-reaching implications for the national politics. The victories in three out of the four Assembly elections since the national elections has made the BJP dominant once again and thrown the opposition in disarray. The party has shown its capacity to adapt and renew itself, enabling it to bounce back from the setbacks. Going forward, the BJP seems set to win in Bihar too, giving it a virtual carte blanche over the destiny of the country in the years to come. Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi have once again proven that they are not up to the task, and, in fact, singularly incapable of mounting a sustained challenge to the BJP. No opposition party, it seems, has an answer to the overarching personality of the prime minister Narendra Modi. The ever-strengthening dominance of the BJP is pushing the opposition to a point where it is being reduced to fighting over scraps.
The AAP defeat has also put a big question mark on its leader Arvind Kejriwal’s future. Losing Delhi is likely to not just arrest the growth of the AAP but also make its survival moot. Although, Kejriwal’s career started with a bang and he did manage to keep himself relevant even during the all-encompassing saffron wave, his image has lost earlier lustre. Pursuing a post-ideological politics, the AAP seamlessly moved towards the right. The actions of Kejriwal in recent years clearly suggested that the AAP made not so subtle appeals to Hindu religion and majoritarianism to protect and grow its base. The party’s trump card, however, had been its model of governance that it perfected in Delhi, and which over the years has attracted notice from across the country. It is debatable what eventually tripped the AAP but it is true that by making easy ideological and political compromises, the party betrayed its promise. And to remain relevant in future, the party needs to resurrect the ideals that made it different.
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