BJP’s capital hope: AAP vehicle for change stuck – at the bottom

In an arena where Congress is relegated to the status of a minor third wheel, on the other side from the 11-year incumbent AAP, is a Modi-BJP that has just returned for a third term at the Centre and is chafing at being out of power for 27 years in Delhi.

The BJP labels the AAP as a purveyor of “revdis” (or “freebies”) and, at the same time, assures voters it will not discontinue the existing schemes. It even tries to outdo the AAP with its own promises of cash transfers and subsidies – for instance, if AAP says it will give Rs 2,100 a month to women, the BJP pledges Rs 2,500 monthly.

Unlike in many other states, however, the BJP’s USP may lie less in the commitments it makes to individual labharthis — in the national capital, the AAP has beat the BJP to it. It lies, more, in a set of appeals that are also a prominent part of the BJP’s multi-layered pitch elsewhere: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invocation of larger, powerful wholes of “desh (nation)” and India in the world, and narratives of big “development”.

So far, in the capital, where aspirations grow even if living spaces become cramped, the BJP’s appeal, alongside the AAP’s pitch, has led to Delhi’s unique split ticket in the last two elections for the Centre and assembly — Modi at the Centre decisively, Kejriwal in Delhi overwhelmingly.