February 22, 2025

The counting trends in the Rajouri Garden bypolls in Delhi have busted the AAP myth. It is in the third position. The BJP is leading and will win the seat, with Congress doing better than AAP. Hopefully, this will reduce the chest thumping that the party is indulging in with increasing frequency of late. Having spent the last two years in gimmickry, fighting the Lt. Governor and the Centre and protests instead of governance, AAP has realized that the people of Delhi are fed up with it. Hence, it has now taken to blaming the EVMs for its electoral reverses.

What Arvind Kejriwal does not realize is that being corrupt and being a crusader against corruption cannot go hand in hand. His bluff was called by the report of the V K Shunglu committee that has exposed instances of nepotism and gross financial irregularities in the functioning of the AAP ruled Delhi. The crusader against corruption does not even blink while asking the Delhi government to pay his personal bills. The people are not blind. They can see that Kejriwal is just hot air. The people of Delhi have had enough of his style of dictatorial governance and have given him a thumb down.

The downslide for the party will continue in the three municipal corporations in Delhi that are going to polls next. Despite his ill-conceived idea of doing away with house tax, people are not going to vote for AAP as they have come to realize that what Kejriwal proposes to give with one hand he takes back in some other way with both hands. AAP is an experiment that is failing – Punjab and Goa proved it. Now Delhi is going to certify it within a few days. After that, Kejriwal will have no moral right to rule. But this time, one is sure he will not indulge in his famous resignation act.