Return game

On September 11, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal arrived at a Vipassana camp at Igatpuri in Maharashtra, carrying a small bag, without any fanfare, he was closing an extremely difficult period for himself and his party. He had the satisfaction of a morale-boosting victory in the byelection to the Bawana assembly constituency in Delhi. The win ended a spell of defeats for the Aam Aadmi Party. Ten days later, when Kejriwal finished the Vipassana session and got back his cellphone, he immediately tweeted that he was returning to Delhi and would hold a review meeting in his office the next morning, marking his return to political business.

Earlier this year, after the AAP’s poor show in the Punjab and Goa assembly elections, a bitter and dejected Kejriwal had said, “We are not Napoleon to win election after election, cover territories. We are here for nation’s development.”

The AAP then faced an even more demoralising defeat in the elections to the three municipal corporations in Delhi, with the incumbent BJP registering a thumping victory. The party seemed to be losing Delhi, let alone spreading to other states.

Critics did not lose any time in writing off the AAP, panning it for ‘overreaching’. Kejriwal was scheduled to address a rally in Gandhinagar, but it was cancelled. It seemed the AAP’s expansion plans were on hold. Kejriwal retreated into a shell. It was quiet on the Twitter front, too.

Kejriwal has had to deal with rebellion in the ranks, with five MLAs and four MPs in Punjab revolting. In Delhi, his former associate Kapil Mishra turned into a sworn enemy, and Kejriwal had an uneasy truce with prominent AAP leader Kumar Vishwas.

Back on track: Arvind Kejriwal seems to have carried out a course correction | PTI

However, there is a new-found confidence in the AAP now. It can be traced to the Bawana victory, and is showing in many ways. Kejriwal seems to have found his voice again. He has attacked the BJP for trying to poach AAP MLAs. He attacked Lt Governor Anil Baijal for the delay in setting up Mohalla Clinics. However, it is not the same AAP, and neither is it the same Kejriwal. While both are looking and sounding confident yet again, there has been a course correction.

According to a senior AAP leader, it was felt that the party was losing the trust of the people of Delhi. Kejriwal’s intensive campaign in Punjab had led to his opponents labelling him as ‘non-resident chief minister’. People do not seem to appreciate his attacks on Modi. “He had to get rid of that image. He has made it clear that the issues of the people of Delhi are his priority,” said the leader.

Kejriwal has been meeting people in an open house every morning for an hour. He has also increased the frequency of his visits to his constituency to take stock of the functioning of public amenities.

One of the press conferences which he addressed recently was on acting against private schools that had hiked fees arbitrarily. He recently allocated the water portfolio to himself. These efforts are aimed at reassuring the people of Delhi that for Kejriwal Delhi comes first.

According to AAP leader Ashutosh, the party can boast a new development model. “Development in Delhi is not about highways or malls or bullet trains. Our development model places health care and education at the centre of things,” he said.

However, the AAP is looking beyond Delhi. But this time, it is doing it differently.

The party has announced that it will contest Gujarat assembly elections, but only on those seats which meet certain criteria, such as availability of a candidate with no corruption blemish, presence of booth level organisation and availability of funds. The AAP will project itself as a viable alternative to the Congress and the BJP, as conveyed by its slogan “Gujarat Ka Sankalp, AAP Khara Vikalp”. In these elections, the AAP will showcase the work it has done in Delhi in the health care and education sectors. “The Gujarat model of development has been talked about a lot. We will project the Delhi model of development as an alternative,” said AAP’s Gujarat convenor Harshil Nayak.

The party recently announced that it will also contest the civic polls in Uttar Pradesh, which shows that it wants to go step-by-step in the state. AAP’s UP in-charge Sanjay Singh has been touring the state, holding meetings with district level units of the party.

The AAP seems to have resumed its search for new pastures with ardent pursuit for Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan to join forces. Kejriwal flying down to Chennai for a meeting with Kamal fuelled speculation on a possible alliance.

It is learnt that Kejriwal had sought the meeting after having followed Kamal on Twitter for some time. According to sources, he has invited Kamal, whom he met over lunch at the latter’s ancestral house in Chennai, to join the AAP.

AAP’s Tamil Nadu convenor S.A.N. Vasigaran said the party was coming up as an alternative to the regional giants AIADMK and DMK. “The BJP is non-existent in Tamil Nadu. The Congress is also finished. There is a lot of interest in Arvind Kejriwal in the state, and if we build an organisation, it can translate into electoral support,” he said.

Congress politician Sharmishtha Mukherjee said the AAP’s confidence was misplaced, and by venturing out of Delhi yet again, it had shown that it had not learnt its lessons. “The mandate that Kejriwal got was to provide good governance in Delhi. He does not seem to have learnt from Punjab and Goa,” she said.

While the AAP is not going after the Modi government hammer and tongs, it is attacking the Centre in a targeted manner, choosing issues such as the oil price hike, lack of jobs, goods and services tax and demonetisation.

By raising these issues, said Swaraj India’s Delhi unit chief Anupam, the AAP was only trying to stay relevant. “In the first place, it was unethical to retreat strategically as it showed that their opposition was guided by politics,” he said.

Doubts may persist on the politics of the AAP and its future prospects. But one thing is clear; it cannot be written off yet.