AAP trying to revive anti-graft wave with Dikshit probe?

AAP is a party in a hurry.

The first signs of this came up in a hastily convened press conference on Tuesday, when AAP leader Prashant Bhushan levelled a new set of allegations against the DMK and party leader Karunanidhi in particular, claiming that they had access to an incriminating telephone conversation that proved his involvement in the 2G scam.

Today, Chief Minister Arvind Kejirwal directed the anti corruption bureau to file an FIR against his predecessor Sheila Dikshit in connection with the CWG scam, where government and games organisers allegedly siphoned off huge sums of money.

Will Kejriwal be able to win back voters by raking up old cases? PTI

With their image of a 'viable political alternative' to big guns BJP and Congress taking a battering thanks to their recent antics in Delhi, the party is clearly keen to regain their image of anti-corruption crusaders as opposed to the current perception of vigilante moral police.

And with Lok Sabha elections months away, they barely have any time. Law Minister Somnath Bharti's actions have found few takers, and Kejriwal's dharna was quite frankly a disaster.

Many of Kejriwal's middle class supporters who shook off their lethargy to actually stand in line and vote for him were conspicuous by their absence at his recently concluded dharna.. This is a constituency that has come out in droves previously for the Lokpal agitation and the Delhi gangrape protests, a history that makes their absence all the more conspicuous.

And although there were initial attempts to paint the opposition to AAP's actions as the opinion of 'elitist' people who were 'benefitting from corruption', the fact is that AAP cannot afford to alienate this class. For one thing, it pays the bills.

The Economic Times  did some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna. This is a situation that AAP quite literally, cannot afford.

Secondly, the urban middle class is more relevant today than it has ever been before. They cannot be simply discounted, a lesson that Congress has learned much to its discomfiture. For AAP, which has pretty much swung to power on the disgruntlement of this very class, it would be suicidal to continue ignoring the writing on the wall.

So by bringing up in quick succession two scams that triggered off mass public anger, culminating in the formation of the India Against Corruption movement and subsequently AAP itself, the party is clearly trying to remind people why they voted for them in the first place. It's back to square one in many ways. Forget the dharna, forget the moral policing, forget Somnath Bharti. It's the aam aadmi versus big gun corruption.

As Firstpost editor R Jagannathan wrote in this piece, it is this same mentality that has also caused AAP to target the BJP, accusing Arun Jaitley of trying to bribe one of its leaders, Madan Lal, into toppling the Delhi government.

He says, "This involves making wild allegations against both and hoping that Congress will pull support and help AAP achieve martyrdom. It is also intended to provoke the BJP so that it acts like a big bully and make AAP appear like a poor victim".

Its allegations against the BJP and DMK have both fallen flat so far. As far as the DMK was concerned, AAP's actions were very much akin to flogging a dead horse. In terms of the anti-BJP allegations, Madan Lal could not provide proof, and many people discounted it as a publicity stunt.

In targeting Sheila Dikshit, AAP may have finally got it right. But coming as it does on the back of so many mess ups, will this FIR be seen as genuine or yet another publicity stunt?