Firstpost Politics Arvind Kejriwal will lose to Modi but he has won Varanasi’s heart
Varanasi: Mohammad Hakim stood outside the kacheri, district magistrate’s office among a group of people, most of whom were wearing Aam Aadmi caps. They were all waiting for Arvind Kejriwal to arrive to file his nomination papers.
Kejriwal’s road show was still about one kilometre away and was expected to reach its destination anytime after 2 pm. There were about two-three hundred people standing under the shade of some trees, chatting and debating. The discussions would sometimes would get heated when the odd Narendra Modi supporter provoked them with a sharp comment or referred to the AAP leader as a ‘Bhagoda’ from Delhi.Then two persons with loads of Aam Admi trademark caps bearing the slogan Hume Chahiye Swaraj, written both in Hindi and Urdu arrived at the kacheri. During the rush of distributing caps, they offer one to Mohammad Hakim. The crowds gathered there cajole him to accept and wear it. But he takes out one of his pocket, saying, “I already have it. Why should I necessarily wear it?”
Most of the others in the crowd were very vocal and aggressive Kejriwal supporters. “We don’t want either the BJP or the Congress, its time for another alternative”, was the common refrain.
Kejriwal’s persona of ‘honest politician’ and his consistent targeting of Modi and Rahul for alleged corporate politics has worked amongst a section of people. “He at least is honest, wears the same shirt for days and talks about ending corruption”, said a young boy who identified himself as Rajaram and claimed that he had come to be a part of Kejriwal’s constituency from Hardoi, a constituency far away from Varanasi. He is instantly cheered by the crowd. One of the excited supporters there, even suggested that Kejriwal had a good chance of becoming Prime Minister because the Third Front would have no other choice but him.
The sense that Firstpost got while talking to people in various parts of Varanasi was that AAP’s campaign has picked up in the one week since Kejriwal’s arrival in the city and the withdrawal of Muktar Ansari’s candidature in a bid to not split the anti-Modi vote. He is getting the support of people, who perhaps have been shouted down for years by their more vocal peers or social groups. Its difficult however to point out which group or caste is favouring him because he has never had anything to do with Varanasi in the past.
Given that Muslims are mostly voting strategically, in a rather aggressively polarised manner to a candidate who can take on the BJP, Varanasi will not be an exception particularly when Narendra Modi is a candidate here.
The two lakh plus votes of the community will in the end go to the person who can show the real appetite to take on Modi’s might. Congress’s Ajay Rai is a local MLA and has good reach in the community but his problem lies elsewhere. His party is no longer favoured.
Whatever be the end numbers, Kejriwal has succeeded in his strategy. He and his core supporters always knew that he was not in Varanasi to win but to make news and build a strong base for his party in the next elections.
Kejriwal’s supporters are happy doing that. A young Rohit Lal who claimed he came from Delhi on his own and didn’t otherwise have any penetration in AAP said, “we may not win but people also remember the one who challenges the mighty.”
