The Kejriwal juggernaut

Arvind Kejriwal is desperately trying to make the 2014 electoral battle between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party, and more particularly between Narendra Modi and himself.

The aggressive manner in which he toured Gujarat last week, with the single-point agenda to bust Modi’s claims on the Gujarat development model, raise several interesting questions.

Make me prime minister and I will replicate the vibrant Gujarat economy throughout the country, is Modi’s main electoral message. But by camping in Gujarat, which incidentally was his first major national campaign for the Lok Sabha polls outside Delhi, Kejriwal raised many questions — some rhetorical, others pretty uncomfortable for the BJP and Modi.

Kejriwal’s first question pertained to Modi’s closeness to big business houses, something that is evident for all to see.

Topmost industrialists, from Ratan Tata to the powerful Ambani brothers, have been Modi’s admirers. Tata was immensely grateful that his beloved Nano project — which ran into such deep trouble in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal — was given a safe and loving home in Gujarat. The Ambani brothers have been hailing Modi and batting for him for a few years now.

Modi’s closeness to the Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani is no secret, and these days, any industrialist worth his salt is waiting for Modi to become prime minister. Modi is good for business, period. That seems to be the general feeling. Challenging Modi to have a debate with him on the “Gujarat model of development”, Kejriwal called the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate a “property dealer” and accused him of taking away farmers’ land in the name of special economic zones and gifting huge chunks of it to big industrial houses.

Scathing in his attack on Modi, Kejriwal said that while Modi was trying to convince vulnerable farmers in UP that he was their “messiah”, Gujarat farmers had suffered under his regime.

Kejriwal next turned his attention to busting Modi’s claims on the enviable agricultural development in Gujarat. Mocking Modi, he asked in the latter’s homeland: “What is your development model? That four lakh farmers who have applied for electrical connections in your State are yet to get it?

Attacking the State for its “dismal” social parameters, Kejriwal told reporters in Ahmedabad that what he had seen over three days in Gujarat was “shocking.”

Always good at theatrics, Kejriwal demanded an interview with the CM and tried to march to his house, only to be stopped by the police.

Modi, predictably, had no time to either see him or respond to the AAP leader poo-poohing his claims of proving clean governance and development in Gujarat.

Neither has Modi responded to the AAP leader challenging him to a public debate on Gujarat’s development.

The interesting fallout from this development is that through his strident campaign in Gujarat, Kejriwal has striven to send out an important message that this election is not going to be between the BJP and the Congress-led UPA, but between the BJP and AAP.

It is quite a cheeky claim to come from a party that was off the block only last year. So focused has been Kejriwal’s assault on Modi that the Congress’s attacks on Modi seem more rhetorical than substantial.

And when Kejriwal challenges Modi on clean governance, it has more chance of ringing true, coming as it does from this anti-corruption crusader compared to those heading an extremely corrupt UPA regime. Also, the AAP leaders have confirmed that Kejriwal will take on Modi from whatever constituency he chooses.

Undoubtedly emboldened by defeating three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Kejriwal is trying to prove that his status is now on a par with Modi, the hottest contender for the prime minister’s chair.

Till now, Modi has ignored him, saving his energy and rhetoric for taking on the Congress and regional players such as Mulayam Singh and Nitish Kumar

But now that the gloves are off, the tremors are being felt in the media space too. As Kejriwal’s campaign gathered steam in Gujarat, a major English news channel, which has already gone soft on Modi, launched an all-out offensive to tar Kejriwal’s image. That he took a chartered flight from Jaipur to Delhi was shouted from rooftops by its anchor and reporters.

Kejriwal’s clarification that another TV channel, which had invited him to its conclave had picked up the tab, did not cut much ice with this channel.

As though on cue, on the social media too, links appeared of a video clip where Kejriwal is telling the anchor from the rival channel what to highlight in the interview and why he ignored parts of some questions as that would have “put off the middle classes”!

Whether or not Kejriwal and the AAP will be the real challengers to the BJP in this election remains to be seen, but Kejriwal’s masterly move to attack the lion in his den has diminished that much the Congress’ image as the principal opponent of the BJP.

Kejriwal and other AAP leaders have been saying confidently that they will win 100 Lok Sabha seats. If the new kid on the block does come anywhere near this figure, it will confirm the electorate’s distrust of established parties.

Also, let’s look at such an outcome through another prism. AAP’s success can come more at the cost of the bigger players such as the BJP and the Congress, than regional parties. If AAP gets even half that number, it will lessen the NDA’s chances of forming a government at the Centre.

If you think Kejriwal is overconfident and arrogant, wait till he achieves this feat. Even 50 seats can make him the most serious contender for the top post in a non-NDA, non-UPA government.

This will send a thousand dreams crashing… of AIADMK’s Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Naveen Patnaik in Odhisha, and the 3Ms — Mamata, Mulayam and Mayawati.

Makes you wonder if this was the reason Jayalalithaa did a volte face with the Left parties and decided to go it alone for all the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.