Battleground Delhi

Delhi votes tomorrow after a no-holds-barred election campaign that saw the main contenders giving absolutely no quarter to their rivals. It is expected to be a fight to the finish, unlike the 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections that were reduced to a one-horse race. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) knows very well that it won’t be a walk in the park this time. The BJP has pulled out all the stops in a bid to remove the thorn in its side — Arvind Kejriwal. However, the former CM, out on bail in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy, continues to be the face of AAP and a potent threat to the saffron party.

The wily Kejriwal has managed to deflect attention from the ‘Sheesh Mahal’ row and the corruption charges against him by accusing the BJP government in Haryana of ‘poisoning’ Yamuna water supplied to Delhi. A notice, promptly issued by the Election Commission on the BJP’s complaint, has forced him to clarify that he was referring to “unprecedented high levels of ammonia in raw water”. Nevertheless, BJP leaders have expended a lot of time and energy on refuting one conspiracy theory after another. This has helped AAP regroup and refocus ahead of voting day.

In this high-stakes battle, the BJP has not shied away from taking the revdi route to woo the electorate. Curiously, voters of the national capital have been resisting the temptation of electing a double-engine government; the Modi magic has been confined to the Lok Sabha elections. In the last roll of the dice, the BJP-led Centre has provided huge relief to the much-taxed middle class, an important vote bank in Delhi. Another factor that gives the BJP hope is the conflict between AAP and the Congress, which are part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc. Both have learnt no lesson from the 2024 fiasco in Haryana, where they played into the BJP’s hands by going solo. Their avoidable one-upmanship will have a bearing on the Delhi verdict.