AAP hopes to reap political harvest out of attack on Kejriwal

The party has stepped up its attack on BJP, Centre ahead of LS polls

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a rally, in Gurugram on Saturday | PTI Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a rally, in Gurugram on Saturday | PTI

The recent alleged chilli powder attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has provided the Aam Aadmi Party with a fresh opportunity to project the Narendra Modi government as the villain of the piece in the continuing narrative of the Centre going to any extent to prevent the Kejriwal regime from doing its work. And the party, which celebrated its sixth foundation day on Monday, is making the most of it.

After AAP leaders raised a hue and cry over the alleged attack on Kejriwal, the Delhi government, in a controversial move, convened a special session of the Vidhan Sabha on Monday to discuss the state of law and order in the national capital in the wake of the incident that happened right outside the chief minister's office at the Secretariat. The session saw a resolution getting passed, which focused on the Delhi Police, attacking the force for not ensuring the safety and security of the chief minister and his cabinet.

The resolution took into consideration that “the elected chief minister and ministers can be attacked in their own office and at the public events hosted by the elected government.” It said that the Delhi Police, in spite of its officials on duty being eyewitnesses to such attacks on the chief minister, tries to hush them up with grossly illogical arguments “which have turned the police force sadly into a butt of ridicule.”

Kejriwal and his party, following electoral debacles in Punjab and the municipal elections in Delhi, had pressed the mute button on their attacks on Modi, with the assessment within the party being that the aggressive tenor of the verbal assaults on the prime minister had not gone down well with the voters.

However, as Modi increasingly faces questions in the wake of corruption allegations in Rafale deal as also in bank scams, and his government is on the backfoot on issues such as agrarian crisis and unemployment, Kejriwal and his party colleagues are once again attacking the prime minister and his government.

Also, the attempt to project Kejriwal as a challenger to Modi and hence a threat to him, has also resumed. The chief minister had, in a video message to the party workers, around two years back claimed that Modi could even get him eliminated. However, in the wake of a string of electoral losses, Kejriwal went quiet on the Modi front, refraining from even mentioning him in his tweets.

However, with the Lok Sabha elections approaching, a change of tack is again visible, with increasing attacks on Modi and the Union government. This was evident in the reactions that came from the party after the alleged attack on Kejriwal. “This is the fourth attack on CM Kejriwal and the Delhi Police has failed to, rather refused to file a chargesheet in any matter yet. Is this a concentrated effort by Delhi Police in collusion with BJP? This also reflects the BJP's fear of Arvind Kejriwal and its attitude towards safeguarding their leader from an opposition party,” AAP leader Raghav Chadha said.

AAP leaders also claimed that Delhi Police, acting at the behest of the central government, was ensuring very little security for Kejriwal.