Did Arvind Kejriwal try to outwit Nitish Kumar?

New Delhi: Two senior leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak on Friday claimed that the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be a battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

This was soon after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the residence of Delhi's deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia.

And this didn't seem a spontaneous remark but a well thought out one and made with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, the home state of PM Modi and his close lieutenant Amit Shah.

Sisodia later endorsed it, adding that the people of India want to give Kejriwal a chance in 2024.

"Till now, the people used to ask if not Modi then whom? Now, it has become clear that the answer to this is Kejriwal. The 2024 elections will be Kejriwal versus Modi," he elaborated.

AAP leaders want the Gujarat elections to be pitched as a fight between their party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pushing the Congress to the third spot in the state's political landscape.

As of now, Kejriwal's frequent tours to Gujarat have definitely given an edge to the AAP vis a vis the Congress that is yet to launch its poll campaign.

Gujarat along with Himachal Pradesh will go to polls in November-December this year. Kejriwal's national ambitions were fuelled by a landslide victory in Punjab.

The AAP's assessment is that the Congress has weakened over the years with no immediate signs of revival and that the people of the country are not yet ready to accept Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate.

Besides, they are also of the view that other opposition parties don't have a pan-India presence to claim that position, hence Kejriwal with two states in his kitty could be Modi's main challenger in 2024.

The response he is getting in Gujarat must have also been a factor for this aggressive brand building exercise.

He has even launched a campaign slogan for 2024 - 'Make India the number one nation in the world' - urging the over 130 crore people to join the national mission on five projects such as education, health, employment, women rights and sustainable farming.

Interestingly, the raid on Sisodia came on a day when the New York Times in its front page article lauded the AAP government's healthcare and education programmes.

Though Kejriwal has never left any ambiguity about his national ambitions, the timing of this announcement is a bit surprising.

Probably, the narrative building around Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar that he could be Modi's main challenger in 2024 might have triggered this move.

After Kumar dumped the BJP to form a coalition government with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), there was a strong buzz in political circles that he could be the Opposition's prime ministerial candidate.

While he has himself denied any such move on many occasions, his party hasn't ruled it out.

If that happens, Kumar will have to hand over the chief minister's post to RJD's Tejashwi Yadav and proceed on a nationwide tour.

This could have been a part of the agreement reached between the RJD and Kumar's Janata Dal (United) before coming together.

Also, there is no clarity yet on Rahul Gandhi's return as the Congress president and this uncertainty has prompted some leaders to suggest that Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot should be given the reins of the grand old party, and Kumar be supported as the Opposition's prime ministerial candidate.

However, this formula would be unacceptable to a large number of Congress leaders and workers who want Rahul Gandhi back as the party chief and also the prime ministerial candidate.

Clearly, Kejriwal wanted to outwit Kumar and the rest.