In the last leg of electioneering for the Delhi Assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is battling the BJP’s heightened Shaheen Bagh/communal polarisation-based campaign pitch with its focus on development and Arvind Kejriwal’s candidature.
Led by Home Minister Amit Shah, 240 BJP MPs will fan out in the AAP strongholds in slums and rehabilitation colonies in the last two days of campaigning centred around anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), while Kejriwal has struck on the BJP’s Achilles’ heel — the absence of a credible chief ministerial candidate .
“Let the BJP name their CM candidate. Let me debate issues concerning people of Delhi with the leader that the BJP plans to install as CM. I give them time till 1 pm tomorrow,” said Kejriwal on Tuesday.
BJP on the other hand flexed its formidable organisational and leadership muscle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other senior leaders, ministers and chief ministers including Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Yogi Adityanath, Devendra Fadnavis, Vijay Rupani, Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari addressing large public meetings and small corner meetings, all in a single day on Tuesday.
On the streets, the BJP’s campaign narrative around Shaheen Bagh, which has become a metaphor for the Muslim resistance to the CAA, a law that makes religion a criteria for grant of citizenship, has picked up some momentum. The BJP is clearly aware of it and plans to milk it, along with an almost daily incidence of protesters in Shaheen Bagh and Jamia being fired at or attacked.
“Amit Shah will shut this protest down on February 11 (the day the Delhi election results will come out). He has said it,” said Vishal, a trader in Acharya Niketan market which is part of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s constituency Patparganj.
However, for one such strident voice, there were at least four others who had voted for Narendra Modi to be Prime Minister in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but were clearly voting to elect Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi CM.
‘Modi not CM candidate’
“Modiji will not be Delhi CM. I voted for him in the Lok Sabha. But for Delhi, we need a local person. Kejriwal is a good candidate. He has done good work in Delhi. My vote goes to him,” said Shailesh Gupta.
Significantly, among communities that have not taken to the CAA kindly are Sikhs. Even though the CAA includes Sikhs from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh along with Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, a number of Sikh traders and professionals that BusinessLine spoke to were vehemently against the new citizenship law. “Why should anyone support a law based on religion. You cannot single out people on the basis of their religion. This is just going to disturb peace, nothing else,” said Jaswant Singh, a shopkeeper in Pandav Nagar market.
In the neighbourhood, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath invoked the collective Hindu spirit against “supporter of anti-nationals called Kejriwal”.
“He was feeding biryani to Shaheen Bagh till yesterday. But such is the force of Bajrang Bali that he is now reciting Hanuman Chalisa from public platforms. There will be a day when Owaisi (Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi) will also recite Hanuman Chalisa,” said Adityanath.
From what seemed to have been a foregone conclusion in the beginning, the BJP has decidedly resurrected its campaign in Delhi. Whether it will be enough is a big question mark.