New Delhi: It all started at Jantar Mantar in April 2011, when anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare started his fast in demand of a Jan Lokpal bill with Arvind Kejriwal by his side. Three years on from that day till the resignation of Kejriwal as the chief minister of Delhi, the protest venue of Jantar Mantar had pretty much become the breeding ground for the Aam Aadmi Party, a ideological offspring of Hazare's anti-corruption movement.
After a 49 day run when the Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party government left the secretariat in Delhi, it somehow seems now that the political outfit which is yet to set out on a national journey, has managed to bring a heavyweight party like BJP to take to the road at Jantar Mantar and touting the language that AAP has been brandishing over the last one year of its existence.
AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal. Reuters
The Delhi BJP today launched a campaign from the streets of Jantar Mantar to reach out to the 'last voter'. "The Aam Aadmi Party is neck deep into corruption itself. We have to expose it to the people of Delhi and for that we are going to reach out to every single household in Delhi," said Ramesh Bidhuri, a senior BJP MLA, who has been most vocal against the AAP inside Delhi Assembly. Bidhuri and his colleagues have now taken to the streets of Delhi to 'expose' Kejriwal.
The national party, it seems, has decided to do their street campaign exactly the same way it was being done by AAP. "Our main agenda is to tackle the rise of Kejriwal and AAP," said a Delhi BJP leader. And to tackle this rise the BJP is using the same hit and run tactics that Kejriwal is accused of. "He got funds from Ford Foundation to disrupt the political system in India," said Bidhuri. But being asked if the his party has any proof against Kejriwal, he cited that the Union home ministry is already running an investigation against AAP for their foreign funding. Very similar to Kejriwal's own style of ruffling political feathers.
The BJP, however, concedes that it was a major faltering that they started this campaign so late. "During the last election we had not given any importance to AAP and it was because of our miscalculation that we could not get majority," said the Leader of Opposition Harsh Vardhan. Countering Vardhan's claim though, party insiders said that it had not been able to do anything to dent the rising popularity of AAP prior to the Delhi elections. "During two major meetings with Nitin Gadkari before the assembly election we did a lot of brain storming to stop the advancement of AAP but to in vain," another leader Delhi BJP said. "But we could not afford to look as if we were conceding even before the elections were fought," he said on condition of anonymity. "That would have lowered the morale of the cadres further," he said.
The new campaign for Delhi is aimed at the next Delhi assembly election which will be announced sooner or later, said sources. "We are ready to fight an election even if it's to be held the next week," Vardhan said. However, the party seems the action of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung's decision of not dissolving the Delhi government as a politically motivated one. "Everyone knows to which side the LG's sympathy lies. It's all a ploy to make sure the BJP does not come to power in Delhi," a BJP leader said.
The freshly initiated campaign of the party shows that at least in Delhi the Congress party has been reduced to being almost redundant as far as the rhetorical attacks go. Now it's only target is Arvind Kejriwal. The move, though comes as a surprise, the tactics is not new. Before the Delhi elections in 2013, the only name who was on the line of fire of the BJP was the then chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit.
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