Continuity Vs Neglect: AAP, BJP’s Narrative Battle Shaped Delhi Bypoll Contest
Major elections in Delhi since 2014 have given clear winners, with the BJP winning all seven Lok Sabha seats in the last two general elections and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) winning 67 out of 70 and 62 in the last two assembly elections. But has won. assembly seats respectively. But when it comes to the by-elections of the same period, Delhi has shown a tendency to not follow the script and appear surprised.
Another high-profile by-election awaits in the national capital later this month. on 26th June, Voters march towards voting in Rajinder Nagar AAP’s Raghav Chadha needs to be promoted to Rajya Sabha. The ruling party has fielded Durgesh Pathak for the bypoll and is relying on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s popularity and the issue of “continuity for development” to see it through.
“The message is simple – that CM Arvind Kejriwal has taken Delhi to new heights of development and we will seek public support so that there is continuity. People have seen how BJP has targeted the poor by using bulldozers. They do not want such a model in Rajinder Nagar. The BJP is so scared of the Kejriwal model of governance that they ran away from the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) election,” said Pathak.
Some in the BJP are hoping for a repeat of the two 2017 by-elections in which the parties whose actions led to the elections lost. BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The AAP MLA has not only left people out, there is a water shortage despite being in Delhi Jal Board (Chadha is its vice-president).” Pathak dismissed the claims.
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In April 2017, two years after its emphatic victory in the assembly elections, AAP faced a by-election in Rajouri Garden, when its MLA Jarnail Singh stepped down to contest the Punjab Assembly elections against the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. But Singh lost the election. In the Delhi bypolls, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) joint candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa won by over 10,000 votes, while AAP’s Harjit Singh came third with just 10,243 votes behind the Congress.
At the time, BJP supporters were quick to interpret AAP’s 2015 victory as a fluke, while Congress supporters saw it as a sign of their revival as a major challenger to the saffron party. “None of this was true,” said a senior AAP leader. “AAP lost the Rajouri bypoll because of anger against Jarnail Singh for leaving the voters to Punjab within a year. It seemed arrogant that if people had shown so much support, someone should have remained in office.”
A few months down the road, in August, another by-election was held after AAP MLA from Bawana, Ved Prakash, resigned from the assembly and joined the BJP. In a setback to the opposition party, Prakash failed to retain the seat he had comfortably won two years ago. The AAP won by 24,052 votes, while the second-ranked BJP saw its votes fall by almost half as compared to the 2015 elections.
“In two years time, the people of Bawana saw the same person fighting from two different parties. This had troubled not only the people but also our own candidate (in the 2013 and 2015 assembly elections), Gugan Singh was a party worker for a long time,” said a BJP leader.
But some insiders in the BJP believe that the story of Chadha leaving the constituency will not be enough to counter the AAP. “One, you have to get a local in the field, and second you have to take the message to the village level. Chances are the same as the general perception in the bypolls is to give the party a chance to come to power, while in the past the quitting candidates had expressed displeasure,” said a Delhi BJP functionary.
The leader further said, “However, the reason why the bypolls in Delhi have become a different ball game is also because people know that their vote will not change anything at the top… ie the chief minister will not be changed. They know that. They will continue to get free water and electricity. As a reason, issues like local candidates and local issues become more important.”
Not only the assembly elections, the recent municipal by-elections have also seen amazing results. In March 2021, AAP won four out of five by-elections in MCD. But the ruling party lost its Chauhan Bangar seat to the Congress. The BJP lost its stronghold of Shalimar Bagh, despite having a majority in the three municipal bodies that were re-integrated as MCDs last month.
