Eye on Gujarat, Kejriwal falls back on Mahatma Gandhi

After seeking to co-opt revolutionary leader Bhagat Singh and Dalit icon BR Ambedkar, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal has now fallen back on Mahatma Gandhi.

On Thursday, Kejriwal accompanied by over 50 AAP legislators visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat in the national capital.

This was soon after he claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to bring down his government by offering Rs 20 crore to each legislator.

Kejriwal alleged that the saffron party had identified 40 of the AAP's 62 legislators and kept aside Rs 800 crore to buy them.

Kejriwal, who is projecting himself as the main challenger of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has upped the ante against the BJP after the raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on his deputy Manish Sisodia in the alleged liquor scam.

He has even apprehended that Sisodia would be arrested in next few days.

AAP leaders claim that this is being done to prevent Kejriwal from campaigning in Gujarat, which goes to polls in November-December this year.

With Kejriwal on an offensive in Modi's home state, the AAP is getting good traction there, emerging as of now the number two party and giving the ruling BJP a run for its money.

In his campaign trail, Kejriwal seeks to debunk the much-touted 'Gujarat model' and present his 'Delhi model' that focuses on improving the education and healthcare systems in the national capital.

For now, the Congress has been pushed to a third spot.

After the raids, Kejriwal has been taking Sisodia along to Gujarat, and projecting him as the best education minister in the country. He has gone to the extent of seeking Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian award, to Sisodia for his work.

Undoubtedly, a smart move.

The AAP's pro-Hindutva tinge has also put the BJP on the mat as the ruling party cannot corner Kejriwal on the Hindutva issue.

Thursday's developments -- first summoning his legislators and then taking them to the Mahatma Gandhi's memorial -- have widely been attributed as part of Kejriwal's shrewd strategy against the BJP with an eye on the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat, the home state of the Father of the Nation.

Kejriwal has been effectively using the icons of India's freedom struggle for his political agenda.

In Delhi and Punjab, the AAP projected itself as the real claimants of the legacy of Bhagat Singh as well as Ambedkar. The pictures of the two don every government office in Delhi and Punjab.

The photos of Mahatma Gandhi are no longer seen though no official order had been issued to remove those.

By going to Rajghat, Kejriwal has gone back to early days when Mahatma Gandhi was the inspiration for him and his colleagues at the India Against Corruption (IAC), from which the AAP was eventually born.

It has often been stated that the 2011 agitation was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's ideology.

Social activist Anna Hazare, who was the face of the anti-corruption agitation, had taken a leaf from Mahatma Gandhi's book by undertaking a protest fast at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan.

But after that, Mahatma Gandhi disappeared from the AAP's discourse and he was replaced by Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar.

Going back to the Father of the Nation is definitely a calculated move by Kejriwal. Only time will tell, if it works.