How Kejriwal changed tack on PM Modi to end political slide with Bawana win

AAP’s victory in Bawana bypoll has given the party cadre a morale boost. The victory mirrors two-fold change in party strategy — connecting with people and not getting into a confrontation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Updated on: Aug 29, 2017, 18:21:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The win for the Aam Aadmi Party in Monday’s bypoll in north-west Delhi’s Bawana assembly segment implies that Arvind Kejriwal’s change of political track — no confrontation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and reconnecting with people — has shown a positive result.

There was a realisation in the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP that it cannot blame the Centre for its failures and had to deliver on its promises. (Sonu Mehta/HT FILE)

This morale boosting victory came after below par performance in Punjab, a drubbing in Goa and failure to win any of the three municipal corporations in Delhi.

In the six months after the series of defeats, a lot has changed in the AAP.

The party leadership shied from criticising Prime Minister Modi as it was boomeranging in polls. The ministers stopped blaming the lieutenant governor (the Centre’s nominee) for blocking their proposals considering it was being termed as “negative politics”.

There was a realisation in the AAP that it cannot blame the Centre for its failures and had to deliver on its promises ranging from free wi-fi zones in the city to a waste-management system to safety of women and a crackdown on water mafia to a modern transport system and much more.

The Modi government has already shown it will not oppose the good governance moves taken by the AAP government. The Centre supported Kejriwal’s car-rationing plan and crack-down on public schools charging high fees.

Bawana election result 2017 Highlights: Kejriwal thanks Delhi for ‘stamp of approval’ after big win

So, the relatively new party focused on publicising its own good work, especially in the field of education and health. The AAP reconnected with its “missing” volunteers, who again got a voice in the government. Kejriwal was back on the streets of Delhi connecting with people, which he had not done after winning the assembly polls in 2015.

It worked as the party was able to retain its vote-bank especially among the deprived and poor despite the Congress eating into its vote share as compared to the 2015 polls. The AAP and Congress compete for the same vote-bank.

Ved Prakash, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after resigning as an AAP legislator, came a poor second was the clear loser as the saffron party’s vote share dipped the most. The BJP swept the municipal polls in April, winning three out of five municipal wards in Bawana.

Many wrote an obituary for the Capital’s ruling party based on the outcome of the civic elections but forgot that the five-year-old party has the ability to stage a comeback.

MCD poll diary: Drop in AAP’s vote share puts question mark on future

The victory in Bawana shows the strength of AAP but describing it as its revival in Delhi would be wrong.

Bawana does not represent Delhi as it does not have traditional middle-class voters, who dominate in more than half of the 70 assembly constituencies in the national capital. Majority of the voters in Bawana live in slums and unauthorised colonies, a reason for the AAP’s success, and remaining in 26 Jat-dominated villages.

The AAP was routed in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, not winning one of the seven seats in the Capital. But nine months later, it created poll history by winning 67 of the 70 assembly seats in Delhi.

Born out of a people’s movement against corruption, the party needed to reinvent itself and reconnect with people as it did after the 2014 election. It did with Kejriwal saddled in the constituency for almost two months.

MCD poll diary: How BJP reinvented itself and AAP lost the plot

“He visited almost every by-lane in this constituency,” said a senior AAP functionary.

Kejriwal, who before turning to politics was a right to information and an anti-corruption activist, has had many setbacks in public life. His never say die spirit saw an unknown party candidate Ram Chander winning in Bawana. I am sure that the win will infuse a new energy in the party representing alternate politics.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.