The gains of going it alone
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal ruled out an alliance with Congress for Delhi elections, focusing on welfare schemes and targeting non-ideological Hindu voters.
Days after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal restated that his party will not align with the Congress in the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, the party released its final list of candidates. Last week, the Congress announced its first list of 21 candidates, with former MP Sandeep Dikshit set to take on Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency. The two parties contested the general election as INDIA bloc allies, though the alliance had little impact in Delhi — the BJP won all seven seats with a 54.35% vote share as against the Opposition’s 43.08%. Evidently, the Delhi electorate votes differently in general and assembly elections. Conventional wisdom suggests that an alliance with the Congress could help the AAP, which is battling anti-incumbency, by preventing a division of the Opposition votes, but the parties have drifted apart after the parliamentary polls.
The AAP’s refusal of an alliance with the Congress could also be a tactical ploy, explained by the party’s transformation since its inception in 2013. Initially, the party positioned itself as a liberal, centrist alternative to both the Congress and BJP. That helped it win over voters dissatisfied with the Congress. An internal churn in the party and the extended tenure in office saw the party embrace Hindu communitarian politics — its silence on the Shaheen Bagh protests, 2020 communal riots in Northeast Delhi, Kejriwal’s endorsement of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, public chanting of the Hanuman Chalisa, and the announcement of free pilgrimages for senior citizens have helped reinforce the AAP’s image as as a pro-Hindu party, allowing it to avoid a communal-secular political binary, which it believes benefits the BJP; any association with the Congress could help the BJP to pivot the debate in that direction. Without the Congress, the AAP hopes to turn the contest into a referendum of its record in office — the welfare schemes and promises, the latest being the Mahila Samman Yojana — and claim to be a victim of the Centre’s “vendetta politics” by showcasing the jailing of Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia (both are out on bail).
One way to look at the Delhi contest is to see it as a battle for the non-ideological Hindu votes. The AAP is better placed than the Congress on this front. Further, the party is keen to win over traditional Congress voters by getting Congress leaders to contest on the AAP ticket rather than having an alliance with the Congress party. It has also dropped 20 sitting legislators, making room for defectors from other parties. Electoral politics today is all about negotiation , not principles — and India’s youngest successful political start-up is indicating it knows how to play the game.