The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s past is coming back to haunt it as it takes uncertain steps towards the anti-BJP bloc ahead of the 2024 general election. Skipping the joint press conference at the end of the June 23 Opposition meet and delivering an ultimatum just hours later betrayed the AAP’s own hesitancy about the foray and also raised doubts in the minds of other Opposition leaders.
Though Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has, over the last few months, met several Opposition leaders in one-on-one meetings, this was the first instance he was invited to the Opposition high table. He was not part of similar confabulations in December 2018 ahead of the last general election. At that time, the Congress was blamed for deliberately keeping the AAP out. But the Congress has softened its position since then and for the last few months, the AAP has been a regular in the Opposition’s Parliamentary strategy meets which were attended by its MPs. But for Mr. Kejriwal, this was his first time sitting across the very people he had stridently attacked as “corrupt” in his pre-AAP avatar.
Corruption campaigns
According to sources present at the meeting, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that he had come with a “blank memory”, leaving behind who said what in the past. But the BJP will not let Mr. Kejriwal forget. Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was quick to remind Mr. Kejriwal of his 2016 statement calling Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar the “most corrupt politician”, threatening to make his alleged Swiss Bank account numbers public. The AAP chief’s sustained campaign against Mr. Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra has also not faded from the public memory.
During the four-hour-long meeting. Mr. Kejriwal traversed from one end to the other. In his speech, according to the sources, he passionately argued that the Opposition parties should keep their own interests aside, concede a seat or two if required, and cherish the other’s victory as their own.
Ultimatum
He later slithered down from this high ground, engaging in a bitter exchange with the Congress, asking them to give a public assurance on supporting the AAP’s campaign against the ordinance promulgated by the Centre, which effectively reversed the Supreme Court’s May 11 judgement that granted the Delhi State government control over the bureaucracy. “It has to be done now, he dictated,” one of the leaders who attended the meeting said.
For the Congress, it was a moment of deja vu. This was not the first time Mr. Kejriwal had issued such an ultimatum. In his pre-AAP days, he had similarly singled out the Congress, demanding that the party give a written assurance on bringing a legislation on Lok Pal. He was unmoved by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s assurance that the party would not under any circumstance vote with the BJP.
Mr. Kejriwal’s absolutist position angered many Opposition leaders, who snapped at him. One of the sharpest comments came from National Conference leader Omar Abdullah. “We haven’t travelled so far, to just discuss one issue,” he said. Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too ticked off Mr. Kejriwal, according to the sources, asking him to sort out his problems with the Congress on a one-to-one basis over a cup of tea in Delhi.
Vanished after meet
But even before that spat came People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti’s speech, embarrassing the AAP delegation. She pointedly reminded the AAP of its position on August 5, 2019, when it had stood against the rest of the Opposition supporting the government on the Bill removing the special status extended to Jammu and Kashmir. Mr. Kejriwal had tweeted at 1:00 pm on that day: “We support the govt on its decisions on J & K. We hope this will bring peace and development in the state”.
After the meeting, Mr. Kejriwal sat down for lunch but he was nowhere to be seen when it was time for the press conference. After hunting for him, harried Opposition leaders called the protocol officer who was assigned to assist him, sources said. “The protocol officer told us that he had gone to the bathroom and has not been seen since then,” one of the attendees told The Hindu. Addressing the press conference later, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tried to cover for the absence of his counterpart from Delhi, saying that he had had a flight and had to leave.
But this cover was blown with the AAP’s statement that, in the future, it would be “difficult” to be part of Opposition meetings with the Congress, until the Congress agreed to oppose the ordinance.
In an interview to The Hindu four days after the Opposition meeting, AAP’s general secretary for organisation Sandeep Pathak claimed that the AAP’s presence in the meeting had only been to muster support against the ordinance, and that they intended to contest the general election alone. His comments, however, fly in the face of the Bihar CM’s assertion after the meeting that the 15 Opposition parties had agreed to fight the BJP together.
