Come any election, the otherwise anti-Hindu and secular parties suddenly try to embrace Hindus and win them over. Usually, this is at the cost of them deeply upsetting their Muslim vote-banks. With Delhi elections merely four days away, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP has also set out on a similar trajectory, with Kejriwal even reciting the Hanuman Chalisa during a television interview. This was in response to a question which probed him over whether he visited Hanuman temples or not.
To nobody’s surprise, Islamists on Twitter were instantaneously outraged with Kejriwal’s attempted tryst with Hindus.
https://twitter.com/DeadZedb/status/1224243167463014400?s=19
https://twitter.com/akdwaaz/status/1224257384375377921?s=19
https://twitter.com/OpusOfAli/status/1224246824669777920?s=19
Now while Kejriwal’s recital of the Hanuman Chalisa might have been in good faith, it has certainly not gone down well with his usual admirers. Six days before an election which will decide the future of his political career, this stunt of Kejriwal was gutsy, to say the least. It was naked opportunism of course, but it also reflected his desperation at somehow having the Hindu vote entirely on his ship; lock, stock and barrel.
Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP and his otherwise committed Muslim supporters have not been sharing the best of relations lately. Although Manish Sisodia had earlier said that the AAP stood in solidarity with protesters at Shaheen Bagh, Arvind Kejriwal has refrained from taking an explicitly supportive position of them.
Initially, the AAP had put all its might behind the anti-CAA-NRC protesters in Delhi, to the extent that senior leaders of the party were seen inciting violence in the national capital. Amanatullah Khan, MLA from the AAP was seen inciting violence in Jamia during the violent protests against Hindus and CAA. Similarly, Abdul Rehman, who faces charges of having lead the violent mobs of Seelampur and then encouraging them for resorting to violence, had been given a ticket from Seelampur by the AAP. In July last year, AAP Minister Imran Hussain was found to be a part of the mob that desecrated a temple. Expectedly, there was a stoic silence from Delhi CM Kejriwal as he refused to condemn the incident.
Having callously indulged in such violent acts, the AAP has perhaps realised that it has gravely alienated its Hindu voter base in Delhi, without which Kejriwal stands no chance of winning a second term. Further, in a clear departure from his otherwise predictable poll campaigning strategy, Kejriwal this time round has not been trying to desperately woo the Muslim voters, with no visible posters showing him as the ‘messiah’ of the community. He has also been avoiding public meetings and gatherings with the community, and till the time of filing this article, no new images of the man donning a skull cap were seen.
This has raised obvious doubts in the minds of the Muslim voters of Delhi, who, in such a circumstance, will not shy away from shifting their vote to the Congress. In a three way contest in specific constituencies, where the Hindu vote is rather fragile for the BJP, a split in the Muslim vote between the AAP and the Congress will work wonders for the BJP.
In such a scenario, there is really only one option left for Kejriwal to experiment with. To win over the Hindus who are rather disgruntled with him. The political currents of Delhi have dramatically changed in the past one month, with even BJP supporters back then giving away Delhi to AAP on a platter, to now, where even liberals are accepting a change of winds, to the extent that the BJP may very well be able to just make it to the halfway mark. This has Kejriwal panicking. A dramatic betrayal of his loyal supporters to win over a new vote-bank may not be the best strategy for the alleged Aam Aadmi.