Delhi Elections 2025: An uphill battle for Arvind Kejriwal

The end of UPA II marked the beginning of a new chapter in Indian politics. The policy paralysis and corruption allegations seemed to have crippled the UPA II government and set the change winds blowing across the country. Amidst the national Modi wave the national capital saw the birth of a new political party aka the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) helmed by Arvind Kejriwal from the India Against Corruption movement. AAP was projected as the alternative for the common man by the common man. But as the game of politics caught on with the activists turned politicians, AAP eventually became an Arvind Kejriwal party. The AAP's political ideology was three-pronged: "Having ideological flexibility", focusing on the brand Kejriwal as the common man, and populism (free water, electricity, and transport) as a tangible transactional electoral tool. But lately, it seems that this three-pronged approach to politics might not work this time around in the upcoming Delhi elections thereby thwarting Arvind Kejriwal and AAP's political ambitions.

AAP started as a so-called secular party as it filled in the vacuum created by Congress's decline. Soon Arvind Kejriwal realized that the Modi phenomenon was here to stay completely changing the social identity fabric of the nation. This resulted in AAP taking a rightward turn and playing soft Hindutva politics. Arvind Kejriwal's silence on the Shaheen Bagh protest, boosting one's Hindu Credentials using Hanuman Chalisa, and now promising a stipend to Mandir Pujaris and Gurudwara Granthis is an indication of AAP's right tilt. At the same time, it hopes to get the Muslim vote as it is the prime opponent of the BJP in Delhi. The tightrope that AAP has been able to walk as a result of the flexibility in terms of its ideology has now become difficult to balance as the electorate becomes more and more polarised. You can now no longer carry on with a belief of "believing in nothing". The brand Kejriwal has suffered a huge blow with the allegations of the liquorgate scam. And as it turns out the common man is not so common after all with the kind of expenses incurred by the exchequer for renovating the official CM's residence. These are just some of the prime examples exposing Kejriwal's numerous political U-turns. Agreed, politics is nothing but hypocrisy, but Kejriwal's hypocrisy of not being hypocritical has started to become apparent to the public. His lack of accountability when it came to daily governance issues even after winning the MCD elections, and instead blaming the lieutenant governor shows that Arvind Kejriwal still does not understand there is a difference between activism and governance. Coming to freebie populism, AAP might be the first to successfully experiment with it and taste electoral success, but it is no longer a differentiator as it has been appropriated by political parties across the spectrum.

AAP is behaving more like a challenger rather than the incumbent who has been in power for the last 10 years. It seems to be talking more about what they are going to do next without highlighting what they already have accomplished. As it turns out AAP's strength has turned against itself in this Jujutsu of an election. Whether the common man still elects the "common man" or gives AAP a "Jhaadu ki safai" only time will tell.

Image Credits: Aam Aadmi Party Twitter