AAP-Congress alliance has to do a lot more to limit the damage on poll eve
By Sushil Kutty
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal squandered the few days he was given by the Supreme Court to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. From all indications, all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats will go to the BJP. The Congress never got a chance from its alliance with the AAP. Congress and AAP candidates were not sitting pretty at the close of campaigning. Kejriwal's Personal Assistant Bibhav Kumar went off the handle and the Congress is paying for the assault on Delhi's sensibilities.
The AAP convener, out on interim bail, is protecting his confidante like a boy, his cache of marbles. . Arvind Kejriwal ensured it with his calamitous behaviour. The seven Delhi seats of East Delhi, New Delhi, Northeast Delhi, Northwest Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi and Chandni Chowk will vote on May 25 and Kejriwal couldn't muster a 1000-strong crowd to march with him to the BJP Hqrs to protest the arrest of Bibhav Kumar. Kejriwal's return to Tihar will spare him the blushes on June 4.
That said, the saying goes that whichever party wins the Chandni Chowk seat in Old Delhi will rule from New Delhi. The BJP won Chandni Chowk in 2014 and 2019. Arvind Kejriwal's personal conduct has spoiled the chances of the INDI-Alliance is a foregone conclusion. This despite the BJP nervousness in six out of seven seats, where it changed candidates not sure of the old faces. A Kejriwal-in-jail and now the Swati Maliwal assault case have, however, cut short any expectations from the once in a lifetime AAP-Congress alliance.
On the eve of the sixth phase of elections, the BJP gives the impression of being comfortable on all seven Delhi seats including in Chandni Chowk. Besides, like everywhere else in the country, the BJP is playing up the phenomenon of “voting for Modi”. Neither Arvind Kejriwal nor Rahul Gandhi can stand up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi one-on-one is another foregone conclusion. This is applicable not just in the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi but across most of the seats in Hindi heartland.
Modi has for all purposes sewn up “300 paar” if not “400 paar”. His assertions of a BJP “super-majority” to the blitz of 40-plus interviews, starting with the one given to a Tamil TV channel, looks planned to ensure nobody raises objections to a BJP landslide on June 4 and people get attuned to the idea. Was Prime Minister Narendra Modi preparing the masses for a third Modi term with a series of televised interviews?
That is apart from influencing the voting pattern, and trend, with the repeated assertions of a huge BJP/NDA victory on the cards? From the looks of it, the BJP and Modi's plans were working on cue thanks to the inexperience of politicians like Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, both of whom haven't matured to the extent needed, especially Arvind Kejriwal, the biggest loser of these elections. Kejriwal walked into Modi's trap with repeated rejections of ED summons.
Kejriwal will return to Tihar on June 2 and on June 4, the Lok Sabha results will be known. Narendra Modi's citation of scheduled foreign tours slated for June, including his presence in Russia for yet another Putin term inauguration, is proof that things will proceed as planned. Question remains what is behind the uncanny surety, what makes Modi so confident that he will get his third term and “you guys better be ready for it”?
Certainly, the expected June 4 outcome wasn't planned overnight. Preparations must have been going on for months, this expectation of another clean sweep using whatever means. The satta bazaar on May 23 prophesied that the BJP will get 310 seats, down from 335 overnight, and that the Congress will get 63. Even the gamblers are lining up behind a BJP victory. Is “abki baar 400 paar” psychological warfare or certainty stemming from advance preparation, even manipulation?
Did anybody think that the BJP-RSS would go away just like that after double anti-incumbency does the Modi government in? If the BJP loses on June 4, there wouldn't be a BJP government for a long time to come. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat aren't going to just sit on their haunches. The plan is for a ‘Viksit Bharat' by 2047. But what sort of ‘Viksit Bharat'?
Ten years was too short a time for the BJP/RSS to impose all that they had on their plate. If perchance, the Congress returns to power, everything that Prime Minister Narendra Modi accomplished and introduced in 10 years for a Bharat of RSS's dreams will be done away with in one fell swoop. The RSS ‘Idea of India that is Bharat' will be throttled. Let us wait for the D-day – June 4 which should bring an end to all speculations including Modi's this baar 400 paar.
