Within 12 months
of resigning from the Government Mr. Arvind Kejriwal returned to power with thumping
majority, a mandate which neither he himself nor his worst detractors have ever
thought. In fact, he was completely down
played by media when he terribly lost Lok Sabha elections barring three seats
of Punjab. The Psephologists
on all important TV channels were amazed that they were nowhere close to their estimates.
Prime Minister Mr.
Modi and BJP President Mr. Amit Shah must be in shock and pondering what went wrong. Ruling party at centre must be in Chintan
mode so that they can correct themselves and such situation might not repeat in
upcoming Elections in Bihar and other States.
Let us understand
what factors contributed for defeat of BJP and astounding win of Kejriwal in
Delhi Assembly Election in 2015.
Just after coming into
power at Centre, BJP should have recommended for fresh election, but it was busy
to form Government by hook or by crook, but it didn’t happen and it lost
precious time to its opponents to raise
issues, Delhi was facing.
A period of eight months was enough for Central Government
to work for Delhi and give relief to the common man, particularly on corruption
issue, but just immediately after fall of Kejriwal Government, corruption again become rampant that affected common man who were able to distinguish
between those 49 days and period thereafter.
While Prime Minister was busy in improving relations with international
community, he failed to focus on plights of Delhiites. If you
talk to any Rickshaw Puller or a daily wage earner, he will narrate you the
tale. BJP kept on highlighting the PM’s success in taking India
to the world stage and promising rapid development of the country, as a vision.
But people care about immediate matters that touch their lives. High prices of
food, high cost of living, lack of drinking water, lack of electricity, lack of
sanitation, etc, all mattered. BJP offered no immediate solutions on these,
while Kejriwal along with his party workers only focused on his promise to
solve these. His message ran home
Prime Minister
Modi couldn’t effectively handles Babas and Sadhvis who unleashed uncontrolled
words against a few communities, which was totally against the professed Slogan
of Prime Minister, “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas”.
Apparently, this led to vote against Modi en masse by Muslims and other
minority communities. A Fatwa issued by Imam of Jama Masjid Sayed
Ahmed Bukhari a day before Delhi went to poll on 7th Feb 2015 to Muslims to vote to AAP went totally against
BJP.
While Kejriwal was busy in preparation
of Assembly election from ground level from day
he dethroned office, BJP was complacent of winning and it failed to
connect with masses because of over optimism or euphoria of Lok Sabha and
Haryana polls. By the time it realised,
it was too late and Ms Kiran Bedi was helicoptered as their Chief Ministerial
Candidate. This alienated the local leaders
and grass root level party workers. The
strategy of campaigning by Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and other State Leaders failed miserably. This, adding to the fact that a rank outsider was chosen over old party
loyalists, did not go down well with the faction-ridden members of the party’s
Delhi unit. Amit Shah’s problem was that
he brought her in too quickly and gave her too much too soon. He needed to get
a ‘buy-in’ from his party cadres before forcing Kiran Bedi on them. The move
backfired
While BJP failed
to bring out any manifesto, Kejriwal made a list of promises in his manifesto. Chief among them is to reduce power tariff by
half, free wi fi, free water, thousands of schools, Lokpal Bill, corruption free
regime and so on and so forth, though only time will test how he will fulfil a
stream of free supply.
Perhaps BJP become
fearful about Kejriwal as the Elections come closer and closer and instead of
highlighting on issue based politics, BJP started attacking personally to
Kejriwal, perhaps that didn’t go well with the voters. Kejriwal, infact realising his past mistakes,
didn’t utter a single word against opposition parties or for that matter
industrialists and was much focused on needs of the people.
Ironically, it
was the BJP’s repeated attacks on Kejriwal that brought him back into the
limelight and he seized the opportunity to his advantage.
BJP has to take
a moment and reflect on what the people expect from the party and what it has
delivered so far.
With Narendra
Modi at the helm, the industry has been waiting for decisive steps towards
reform. That has not happened as yet. The coming budget will unveil the
direction on the reforms process. BJP has to realize that without actionable
reforms, progressive ideas like ‘Swacch Bharat’, ‘Jan Dhan’ and ‘Make in India’
will not be sustainable.
On the
political front, BJP has to emerge from the shadows of the RSS and be decisive
in putting down polarizing forces that threaten all the good work the party has
done until now. The Prime Minister’s silence on this very vital issue is
intriguing and going forward may undo the progressive image that he has managed
to cultivate so far.
