19 July 2015: When Arvind Kejriwal was asked why he fought election against Narendra Modi in Varanasi during the Lok Sabha elections and whether he wanted to become Prime Minister. Kejriwal’s reply to this query was that if he wanted to win Lok Sabha elections, he would have contested from the safer seat in New Delhi and not from Varanasi. In a way, Kejriwal’s answer was appropriate as in the game of cricket even a player does not make any score and if he is capable of facing at least 3 to 4 overs of an ace bowler of the opposition team that player would be considered as the best player. In the same way,being defeated by Narendra Modi is not a matter of big concern, but contesting standing against him was important. Whatever his performance against Modi in Varanasi, he got wide publicity as an Aam Aadmi challenging the electoral fortunes of a veteran and experienced politician.
As we all know that the ball bounces more high as much as one hits it to the ground. Same thing happened in the case of Kejriwal. Because of Varanasi defeat Kejrwal was ridiculed by everyone. He himself had no confidence of bouncing back in electoral politics. More over even if he had won in Varanasi, in the face of majority of BJP in the Lok Sabha his victory against Modi would not have created a big stir in the media. He would have been a common MP, and he would have had to shout loudly among 545 MPs to show his existence.
But God had chosen him for greater things. Providence made all the BJP and Congress plans to work in favour of him. Delay of election for Delhi worked vary well in his favour. Nine months were sufficient for the people to analyze the performance of the BJP led NDA government at the Centre. If the election was early, people would not have had the performance chart of BJP to analyze it.
When the Delhi election results were declared, the verdict of the people of Delhi was clearly in favour of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Kejriwal registered one of the best election results ever in Indian History. It provided an opportunity to Kejriwal to implement his anti-corruption policies with full force.
With a smaller state Arvind Kejriwal has ample opportunity to provide best governance with his cabinet ministers and MLAs performing their duties to the best of their abilities. As promised in manifesto Arvind Kejriwal can experiment with Swaraj Budget, reducing electricity charge to half, free Wi-fi, free water, etc. If he can succeed in these ventures, Kejriwal can prove his worth as an efficient and corruption free administrator and win the support and admiration of the people of Delhi.
As against Arvind Kejriwal’s success, people can analyse the promises made by Narendra Modi before the General Elections and how far they have been implemented. Hence, what Arvind Kejriwal will achieve for Delhi during the remaining term of his government will be judged against the achievements of Modi Government at eh central level and it will have a bearing on the elections of 2019. In this way, one can understand as to why Arvind Kejriwal’s win at Delhi is more significant than his contest against Narendra Modi at Varanasi.