Politics | Reinventing the BJP in Delhi

“A very large area of governance has nothing to do with ideology. It has, rather, to do with formulation of good policies and programmes, and their proper implementation; it has to do with responsive and responsible administration, with a high degree of transparency and accountability, and people's enthusiastic participation at all tiers of the democratic set-up.”

The above words were said by then Union home minister LK Advani at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conclave in Goa in April 2002. The conclave was taking place barely a month after the horrible riots and pogrom in Gujarat, which was a very low-point for the BJP during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era.

Those words may still reverberate to remind the BJP rank and file that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s stupendous performance in the Delhi assembly polls may have lot to do with what Advani had tried to remind them 18 years ago.

The shortcomings in an approach — that ignores deliverables and overplays ideological beliefs — saw the Delhi voter prefer a party that delivered on two or three previously held out promises, and that was enough to match up to the moderate expectations of the voter.

Certainly, the AAP did not bring a revolution to the city’s governance model. However, in some areas where it did bring about a qualitative change, the quantitative assessment was in its favour despite a patchy track record. The AAP’s efficiency in limited areas won wider appreciation than what the Narendra Modi-led BJP has sought to do at the national and state levels — big systemic changes, some of which have a long gestation period and might pinch initially but benefit in the long run.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal promised to improve water and electricity pricing, functioning of government schools, and empower women by way of free bus rides. These were low-hanging fruits given the legroom the Delhi budget allows, without taking into account the state’s long-term growth. Such measures have a limited effect—a fact which was clear when the state voted for the BJP in all its seven Lok Sabha seats in May 2019.

That said, the BJP did not have much to offer when it came to managing Delhi affairs. Hence, like Modi’s spectacular win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, aided to a great extent because of welfare measures such as free gas cylinders and stoves, houses and toilets, power connections and direct benefit transfer of subsidies, Kejriwal delivered another big win for his party on its track record of governance.

The positive takeaways for the BJP are the ~7 percent rise in vote share and the five more seats it won this time taking its tally to eight in an assembly of 70.

Some attribute the BJP’s lose to the fact that the party could not match AAP’s promises of freebies, and the national party’s own promises did not cut much ice. Either the BJP came late to the party or it got lost in its own political cacophony.
In retrospect, the BJP suffered for a host of reasons which it knew all along, but has done little to redress since its defeat in Delhi in 1998. This was followed by a series of losses in 2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, and now 2020. In all these years, the BJP paid a heavy price for its lack of focus on basic municipal governance, unwillingness to invest and nurture on a new crop of local leaders who could have the ability to defy the changing demography of the capital and be projected as a future Delhi CM.

If Sheila Dikshit being the face of the Delhi Congress caused defeats for the BJP in 1998, 2003 and 2008, a popular movement under Anna Hazare ultimately ended up knocking out the party’s own base as a viable opposition. Despite the BJP’s open support for the anti-corruption drive, it could not prevent a fledgling political formation from riding on the local angst to emerge as one of its faces against Dikshit’s tenure.

What’s more, the BJP got its first warning bell in Delhi’s municipal elections in 2017. It got control of the three corporations by winning over some independents, but, its management since then left much to be improved because of the run-ins with the AAP government. Stories of abundant corruption at the municipal level did not bother the BJP leadership.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah took over the campaign only after the dates were announced in Janaury, and even Shah initially ignored the challenge posed by an unassuming Kejriwal. Rather than focusing on local issues, the BJP focused on national issues such as Article 370.

The BJP’s own attention was riveted to the almost two-month-long sit-in by Muslim women in Shaheen Bagh, blocking an arterial road demanding revocation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Comments over this generated so much heat that a BJP minister and a MP were barred by the Election Commission of India from campaigning. Even strong BJP supporters were disappointed that Shah chose not to use the Delhi Police (under his ministry’s control) to clear the protesters, but decided to let electoral politics continue over it.

Displaying political astuteness, Kejriwal refused to walk into the trap of stridently opposing the BJP’s Hindutva brand of politics.

In 2022, Delhi faces the municipal poll again. There is now time to go back to the drawing board. Will the BJP choose to hold on to the dovetails of Modi or re-invent itself to be a meaningful force to address basic civic issues? AAP has already announced it is getting to work soon to win the MCD — its next big challenge, and not make foray into the national scene as its admirers badly want.

Shekhar Iyer is former senior associate editor of Hindustan Times and political editor of Deccan Herald. Views are personal.