Will Delhi civic election curb AAP’s high-pitched campaign in Gujarat?

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal has been going all guns blazing in Gujarat and projecting his party as the main challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has been ruling the state for over 27 years now.

While it is difficult to predict if the AAP would be able to translate the traction it is getting into votes, Kejriwal has so far succeeded in giving sleepless nights to the BJP leadership in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Morbi bridge tragedy in which 141 people died is likely to impact the performance of the ruling party, prompting the BJP’s national leadership to press the panic button.

The assembly elections in Gujarat, also the home state of union home minister Amit Shah, will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8 along with those to be polled in Himachal Pradesh on November 12.

But the announcement of the date of municipal corporation elections in Delhi a day after the declaration of the poll schedule in Gujarat has surprised many.

The MCD election will be held on December 4, and the results will be announced on December 7.

While Delhi is considered to be a stronghold of the AAP, Gujarat is the BJP’s bastion.

The move has put the AAP in a tight spot given that the campaign for the Gujarat assembly elections and the MCD polls will go on simultaneously.

Its two main star campaigners -- Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia -- will have to distribute their time evenly between Gujarat and Delhi as both are important in the AAP’s scheme of things in terms of expanding its base across the country.

These are also crucial for Kejriwal as he seeks to emerge as Modi’s main challenger in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

On the other hand, the BJP has robust election machinery and the capabilities to handle multiple elections concurrently as seen in the past.

The Congress till now has been the main opposition party in Gujarat while its graph is on the decline in Delhi since 2013 with the grand old party even having failed to open its account in the national capital in the past two elections – 2015 and 2020.

After the AAP’s stupendous victory in Punjab, Kejriwal is keen to replicate the Delhi model in Gujarat.

He was equally optimistic of his party’s good show in Himachal Pradesh till the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested his ministerial colleague Satyendra Jain, who was the AAP in-charge of the hill state, on May 30 this year.

The AAP has also diverted all its resources to Gujarat and shifting some of those back to Delhi might hamper its electioneering in Modi’s home state.

Gujarat, it seems, will remain high on Kejriwal’s agenda as a good show there will establish him at the national level and help in the AAP’s expansion plan in other states.

But strengthening its grip over Delhi is equally critical for the AAP. Indeed, a tough call for Kejriwal.