Soon after the Aam Aadmi Party’s victory in Bawana by-poll was announced on Monday, celebrations erupted outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house in Civil Lines. Party volunteers and senior leaders said the credit for the win should be given to the complete change in the AAP’s campaign strategy since the debacle in the municipal elections in the Capital.
‘Kejriwal met people’
The supporters outside Mr. Kejriwal’s house chanted slogans praising him and congratulated each other with sweets, and danced to dhols. “Arvind Kejriwal personally went to meet the people of Bawana and listened to their problems. This was not for the media or to gain any publicity, but with the pure motive of working for the people,” said AAP’s Delhi’s convenor Gopal Rai. Every Sunday, and even on evenings after work, Mr. Kejriwal would take walks along the broken roads of colonies in Bawana, ordering officials to take note for remedial action, he said.
This strategy adopted by Mr. Kejriwal was similar to the one that worked for him in reclaiming Delhi in 2015, after he had stepped down as Chief Minister in 49-days in 2014.“He went to each constituency and asked for forgiveness from the voters for leaving the seat of the CM in 49 days. Till then, people had only seen politicians begging for votes. No leader had accepted his mistake and promised to rectify it with a mandate,” said a senior party leader.
‘Smear campaign’
Mr. Rai had also spent over two months strategising door-to-door campaigns in the constituency. He said that after a while, even the BJP and the Congress realised the effect of the AAP campaign and started negative campaigns against the party instead of canvassing for their candidates.
After the win, Mr. Kejriwal addressed the volunteers and said the win proved that the people of Delhi are still with the AAP. “After two or three years of governance a general feeling of anti-incumbency sets in. But Delhiites have liked our work. The Centre needs to stop interfering with our work,” he said. He added that this result was a slap on the face of BJP’s candidate Ved Prakash for “cheating” the people of Bawana for personal gains.
“The BJP has tried to buy all our MLAs, but only one out of 66 could be bought. The voters also taught a lesson to the one who was sold,” he told the volunteers.