"Victory is so big, it is frightening," Arvind Kejriwal told party workers in a victory speech after the results of the 2015 Delhi assembly election that saw Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) win 67 out of the 70 seats. "Do not be arrogant," he warned his party workers. While the party lost five seats in 2020 Assembly polls, the triumph march had no stopping.
Both Kejriwal and his party workers, though, soon became arrogant. In fact, the egotism of Kejriwal was soon visible after 2013 election when a new AAP got the second rank with 28 seats and came to the government with the support of the Congress from outside – the party it defeated. Kejriwal defeated the then chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who had become the face of development of Delhi.
The Congress had been in power for 15 years and the Dikshit government is still rated as one of the best in Delhi since the National Capital Territory of Delhi acquired a legislative assembly and an elected government under Article 239AA of the constitution, brought about through 69th Amendment in 1991. Yet, she lost with a landslide margin to a novice in her fourth attempt and the party was brought down to eight seats.
The loss was a consequence of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement of 2007-11, which began with the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The AAP's emergence from the IAC was unexpected. Activists Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav who had helped to convert the movement into a party and to lay the AAP's foundation, hoped for clean politics free of the Congress and the BJP. But they did not anticipate the events to culminate in their expulsion. Kejriwal made his dominance as the party chief from day one.
Similarly, the Opposition INDIA bloc created before the 2024 general election to trounce Narendra Modi-led BJP, of which AAP was a part, did not realise that AAP, looking at its own expansion, will try cutting the Congress to size. Kejriwal's decision not to fight the Delhi election in a coalition with the Congress party, and giving a few seats to the latter, damaged both the parties and even the INDIA bloc. But although the victory of the alliance was not yet certain, for a accurate arithmetic of AAP's and the Congress's vote percentage (43.75% was AAP's vote percentage and 6.34% was Congress's) may not have added up to 50% of votes, it definitely promised a greater likelihood of defeating the BJP than the current situation.
Whether or not the Congress would still have put up candidates to 'put Kejriwal in place' is a matter for debate, but in a mood demanding an alternative alliance, personal ambition must be kept in check by all parties and leaders. A question – whether the Congress would still have been magnanimous – would be asked long after.
Now, it is essential here to emphasize the arrogance of Kejriwal and his party workers. Though he was a 28-member party standing second in 2013 election, which had formed the government with the outside support of the Congress, he opposed every aspect of the constitutional and administrative setup, declaring himself an anarchist. Though his anarchism spilled over on the Rajpath (now Kartavya path) a couple of days prior to the Republic Day event, his minister Somnath Bhartiya was involved in an unnecessary spat with the police for a misplaced reason. Once he was back in office with a brute majority in 2015, he would engage in squabbles with senior bureaucrats even if he was in the wrong on procedural matters; even abuse them although being an ex-bureaucrat himself, he was supposed to know procedures and rules. A holier-than-thou attitude was in the party and other ministers were also haughty and sanctimonious.
This led the party's journey on a non-ideological and misconceived path of governance. Initially, the AAP began imitating the BJP's Hindutva without saying so. As a substitute for the BJP's Ram Mandir, they began worship of the god Hanuman by recitation of Hanuman Chalisa with much fanfare and at the same time Sundar Kand (from Tulasidas's Ram Charit Manas) recitation on various occasions also went on. Also, pilgrimage concessions for senior citizens were declared.
Particularly, its misguided governance platform of free electricity and water has had a deep-rooted long-term influence. Misuse of public funds in turn affected developmental work in Delhi. Of all that was promised 'mohalla' clinics and bettering of Delhi schools, the second only was conducted satisfactorily and remembered.
Meanwhile, agitated with keeping Delhi in another party's hold, the prime minister played unconstitutional politics. The Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 took away services from the legislative competence of Delhi legislative Assembly; created the National Capital Civil Services Authority comprising the chief minister, chief secretary of Delhi, principal home secretary of Delhi – this authority was also authorized to make suggestions to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on transfers and postings of officials and disciplinary issues; and authorized the LG to use his sole discretion on a number of issues including the ones pertaining to National Capital Civil Services Authority, and the summoning, prorogation and dissolution of the Delhi legislative Assembly. The LG also persistently thwarted policy and legislative measures by the democratically elected AAP government of Delhi.
This wasn't all.
The AAP's top leadership, including Kejriwal, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, were arrested on dubious corruption charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), which made it hard for them to obtain a bail. Post-election survey by Lokniti-CSDS suggests that "corruption charges made by the BJP and Congress against the AAP" did affect the poll outcome. In addition, Kejriwal's extravagant makeover of the chief minister's bungalow, whose first term saw him demanding a humble abode and driving his Wagon R vehicle, also shattered his image of honesty.
The greater impact of the defeat of the AAP at the national politics will be twofold. It makes Modi and the BJP electorally unbeatable in significant portions of the country with superior strategy and organisational framework. Second, the comedic jibe at the AAP's defeat by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah, 'aur lado aapas mein!' ('Fight more amongst yourselves!') sums it up.
In canvassing for the AAP in Delhi, even when the Congress also contested, the INDIA bloc allies – Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) –indicated that the chances of the bloc in future elections would be substantially weakened.
Ajay K. Mehra is a political scientist. He was Atal Bihari Vajpayee Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 2019-21 and principal, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College, Delhi University (2018).
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