From the outset, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had declared Arvind Kejriwal as their Chief Ministerial candidate and Jagdish Mukhi as that of the Bharatiya Janata Party. They had flooded the city and the internet with ‘Arvind Kejriwal versus who?’ publicity material.
Nearly two months later with Kiran Bedi on the way to be projected as BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate, AAP is wary of repeating the exercise and claim that the strategy on ground would not be ‘Bedi-centric.’ “We don’t feel the need to tweak the campaign agenda for our Jan Sabhas addressed by Arvind Kejriwal. There may be the odd mention but that according to us is more rhetorical than thematic,” said a party spokesperson.
The party believes that over the past one month, they have tried to set the discourse of the elections through issues raised in Delhi Dialogue series and any deviation could only be counter-productive.
“On social networking websites and television channel debates, our volunteers or leaders may debate this issue but wherever there is a direct communication with the people, we would refrain from targeting Ms. Bedi,” said another party leader.
Extending the point further, he added that despite Ms. Bedi’s induction into BJP three days ago, the party has had no meeting on the issue till Sunday.
The party treads cautiously when confronted with the question that has Ms. Bedi filled the leadership vacuum in the BJP ranks, something AAP has been claiming all along. Both leaders provided open ended answers to questions about whether Ms. Bedi has blunted the edge that AAP had thus far and whether a shift in momentum has begun as claimed by recent surveys. So can Ms. Bedi take away a major chunk of votes away from AAP? Responding to this, the leaders were of the view that Mr. Kejriwal’s experience as Chief Minister once will come in handy against his former India Against Corruption colleague. Asked about feedback from booth level volunteers since the announcement of Ms. Bedi joining the BJP, the leaders said they were undeterred.
They cited the numbers in Sunday’s jansabhas to back this claim. And while speculations are on about the constituency from where BJP would field Ms. Bedi, AAP leaders said New Delhi (Mr. Kejriwal’s constituency) has traditionally been represented by the Chief Minister and any challenger to a former CM should contest from there.
