HOW PARTIES ARE REDRAWING BATTLE PLANS

While BJP is relying on the PM’s popularity, AAP has gone on a freebie spree and Congress is yet to hit the ground running

- Gulam Jeelani and Pankaj Jain in New Delhi

While the Aam Aadmi Party has entrusted its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh to lead the campaign, the BJP has appointed Union Minister Prakash Javadekar for the job. The Delhi Congress unit, however, is still fighting an internal feud which has delayed the appointment of its president – a post vacant since three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit passed away in July.

In February 2015, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party won a record 67 seats out of the 70 seats in the Assembly. The BJP was limited to just three and Congress scored a duck. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP swept Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats, with its vote share jumping from 46.6% (in 2014 general elections) to 56.6% in 2019. AAP, on the other hand, saw its electoral grip loosening as its vote share shrunk to 18.1% from 33.1% in the 2014. A battered Congress, however, managed to increase its vote share from 15.2% in 2014 to 22.5% in 2019.

AAP ON OVERDRIVE

Soon after the drubbing in the 2019 general elections, AAP started working for the Assembly polls. In June, within days of the 2019 election results, its MLAs launched a public outreach programme called ‘Aapka Vidhayak Aapke Dwar’ – with the aim to drive an energetic ‘presidential-style’ campaign projecting Kejriwal as a larger-than-life figure.

Leading from the front, Kejriwal has held nearly 20 press conferences since May 2019 and is on a roll doling out freebies that include free rides for women in DTC buses and the Delhi Metro; free electricity till 200 units and a 50% subsidy on consumption of up to 400 units; installation of CCTVs and free WiFi.