NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) seems all set to take a plunge in a full-fledged manner in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The party in office in Delhi and Punjab seeks to turn the raid by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the establishments associated with deputy CM Manish Sisodia as an opportunity to appear as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s main contender.
While AAP seeks to replace the Congress as the BJP’s principal political rival, Kejriwal has thrown the gauntlet in the ring in order to become Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s main challenger.
This may lead to a repeat 10 years later of 2014 when AAP and Kejriwal had similar ambitions.
Make India No. 1 mission
AAP supremo Kejriwal launched the ‘Make India No. 1’ national mission in New Delhi on August 17 with an eye on galvanising support for his party. He aims at associating 130 crore population of the country with this mission.
He said all 130 crore people including every caste, religion, farmer, labourer, doctor and teacher will have to come forward and take over the reins of the country to make India the leading country in the world.
In a veiled attack on both Congress and BJP respectively, Kejriwal alleged that “family” was dear to some while “friends” were dear to others. He accused these parties of doing nothing except filling their house for 75 years. Now everything would be for India and the people of the country, he said.
The Delhi CM spelt out the priorities and said the country needed to ensure five things: 1. Free and quality education for every child. 2. Free treatment to every citizen. 3. Employment to every youth. 4. Respect and security of every woman. 5. Full price of farming to every farmer.
He exhorted even the BJP and the Congress to forget their fights and get connected with the mission.
CBI raids on Manish Sisodia’s establishments
The CBI raided the home and 30 other locations of Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s education and excise minister, throughout the country on August 19, just two days after Kejriwal launched Make India No. 1 mission. The raid was in connection with the Delhi government’s Excise Policy 2021-22.
Delhi Lt Governor (L-G) V K Saxena last month recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the policy.
Top AAP leaders said instead of getting cowed down by the raid and possible arrest of Sisodia, they would fight the Centre tooth and nail. Delhi government’s health and power minister Satyendar Jain is in jail after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
The raid continued for more than 12 hours. It has led to the AAP leaders attributing political motives to Modi and BJP. They inferred that the actions against their leaders were proof that their party had arrived on the horizon. The BJP was feeling threatened by AAP and it would be a Kejriwal versus Modi battle in 2024, they said.
‘2024 to be a battle between Kejriwal and Modi’
The day CBI conducted raids on Sisodia’s establishments, Kejriwal alleged that it was a conspiracy by the central government to stop the good works done by the Delhi government in the health and education sectors.
He said in two different tweets, “Delhi has made India proud. The Delhi model is on the front page of the biggest newspaper of the US. Manish Sisodia is the best education minister of independent India… The whole world is discussing the education and health model of Delhi. They want to stop it. That is why the raids and arrests on Delhi's health and education ministers. Whoever tried to do good work in 75 years was stopped. That's why India was left behind. Will not let Delhi's good works stop.”
The common refrain of other senior AAP leaders was that the raids on Sisodia were proof that the 2024 Lok Sabha election would be between Kejriwal and Modi.
A day after the CBI raid, Sisodia held a press conference and said the 2024 Lok Sabha polls would be a battle between Kejriwal and Prime Minister Modi. He alleged that the PM was using all means to scare the AAP convener.
He claimed that the Delhi excise policy was implemented with complete transparency and there was no irregularity involved in it. He alleged that the BJP wanted to stop Kejriwal whose work on education and health was being talked about in the world.
Sisodia noted that AAP leaders were being targeted because Kejriwal has gained the love of the people and has emerged as a "national option''.
He said, "They are not concerned about any scam in the excise policy. They are scared of Kejriwal who has gained the love of people, especially after the party's victory in Punjab assembly elections. They want to stop the good work being done in education and health sectors. They first arrested Satyendar Jain who was holding the charge of the health portfolio and I will also be arrested in the next couple of days."
Sisodia alleged that the difference between Kejriwal and Modi was that the former thought about the poor people while the latter thought about his select friends.
In a separate press conference the same day, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the issue was not about liquor policy in the national capital, but the rising popularity of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. “If that were the case, they (BJP) would have investigated Gujarat... They are targeting Kejriwal's model for health and education,” Singh said.
He further said, “The developments prove that the next Lok Sabha election in 2024 will be AAP versus BJP, it will be Modi versus Kejriwal. We will fight. I am saying it again that you cannot stop Kejriwal, or our education or health model. They have been asking Modi versus who? I tell you today - it's Modi vs Kejriwal."
Another AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha hit out at the Union government for “coercing the CBI into conducting a raid” at the residence of Sisodia. He said the BJP is terrified of the growing popularity of Kejriwal. BJP was trying to defame AAP, a staunchly honest party, with their nefarious political tactics, he claimed.
Chadha said, “Do whatever you can, send the ED, CBI, Income Tax, Delhi Police after us but the Kejriwal wave won’t stop; the agenda is clear, we are standing our ground unfazed, unafraid. Earlier it was ‘Modi v/s who?’, today it is ‘Modi v/s Kejriwal’. CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal is an alternative to PM Modi. This CBI raid is nothing but vendetta politics of BJP to curb CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal's popularity and hinder Delhi's health and education model.”
The MP from Punjab said when Kejriwal’s house was raided, the officers had found only a few mufflers and now they would only find books, pencils and geometry boxes by raiding Sisodia’s residence.
2014 vs 2024
After it was founded in November 2012, AAP contested the December 2013 Delhi assembly election and came second by winning 28 of the 70 assembly seats. BJP was at the top with 31. The Congress, which had won 43 seats in the 2008 assembly election, was reduced to just eight seats.
AAP formed the government on December 28, 2013 with the support of the Congress. However, the government lasted just 49 days and Kejriwal resigned in February 2014.
While President’s Rule was imposed in Delhi, AAP decided to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with maximum participation.
But AAP’s performance was a disaster. AAP contested 434 of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats. However, it won only four - all of them from Punjab. Kejriwal himself suffered a humiliating defeat against Modi in Varanasi.
Later, the party suspended two of its MPs - Harinder Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib and Dharamvir Gandhi from Patiala - for anti-party activities.
Out of the 40 seats AAP contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, it won just one - that of Bhagwant Singh Mann from Sangrur. AAP lost the Sangrur bypoll to Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann in June.
With this defeat, AAP does not have a single MP in the Lok Sabha.
In such a situation, talking about efforts to project the 2024 Lok Sabha election as one between the BJP and AAP or between Modi and Kejriwal, the Congress alleged that the two parties were hand in glove.
Congress leader Alka Lamba said in a press conference on Sunday that AAP was trying to set a narrative for 2024. “What an ugly joke that it is a fight between Modi and Kejriwal! The Congress believes that it is an attempt by two thugs to make the 2024 general election a fight between a big and a small thug. The big thug cheated the country's banks with the help of his wealthy friends while the small thug cheated Delhi with the support of the liquor mafia.”
