On the Right To the Centre, AK Goes 2.0

Refusing to fight the BJP on its hyper-nationalist terms gave AAP more than anti-BJP votes

- Preetha Nair

It’s no coincidence that the Aam Aadmi Party launched its new campaign—“Connect with AAP for nation-building”—on the day it won 62 of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats, storming to power for the third time in a row. Faced with a highly polarised discourse, AAP pulled off the feat by focusing on its record in governance— school reforms, mohalla clinics, free bus rides for women, free electricity and water, CCTVs, free WiFi. In the backdrop were the Shaheen Bagh sit-in, police crackdowns on protestors against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and a vitriolic campaign by the BJP. In his first speech after the result, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said the victory marks the beginning of a new model of politics that it wants to convert into a national template.

“The new politics is the Kejriwal model of development,” says AAP campaigner Jasmine Shah, who is vice chairperson of the Delhi government’s dialogue and development commission. “This is a brand of politics where the government relentlessly focuses on people’s basic necessities—water, electricity, education. The Delhi government has already set a benchmark in health and education, with many state governments emulating it. AAP stands for an alternative brand of patriotism and nationalism that is not built around hatred,” adds Shah, who is also a member of the party’s manifesto committee.