Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s broadside on Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday highlighted the divide between his party and the Aam Aadmi Party, which both continue to be (at least on paper) members of the INDIA opposition bloc and national allies. Gandhi called the former Delhi Chief Minister the “architect of the liquor scam” and used the “sheeshmahal” jab, which is a mainstay of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attacks.
Hitting back, Arvind Kejriwal said Mr Gandhi was repeating the BJP’s speech, suggesting there’s an agreement between the two parties. Speaking at a Patparganj rally in Delhi, ahead of next week’s election that could make or break Arvind Kejriwal’s political career, Mr. Gandhi attacked the AAP leader and his right-hand man, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who had both been detained and imprisoned by the Enforcement Directorate on corruption-related charges. Both were released on bail, by the Supreme Court, late last year. “… Kejriwal had a small car (the blue Maruti Wagon-R that the AAP leader reported stolen in October 2017) when he came, and he declared he will introduce a new kind of politics. He had climbed an electric poll and promised to transform Delhi. But when the poor people of Delhi needed him, he was nowhere to be found. When there was violence in Delhi (referring to the riots of 2020) he was nowhere to be seen. He talked about ‘clean politics’ but the biggest liquor scam took place in Delhi,” Mr Gandhi raged.
The Congress politician then responded with the “sheeshmahal” jab, drawing a comparison between his leaving his MP mansion after being suspended and the BJP’s claims that the AAP spent Rs 45 crore renovating the Delhi Chief Minister’s bungalow when Mr. Kejriwal was in office. “I was thrown out of my house by (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji… and I handed them (the BJP) the keys and said you can keep it. But Kejriwalji stays in a ‘sheeshmahal’.”
Mr. Gandhi was criticized by Arvind Kejriwal, whose party has held office since 2013, for restating the BJP’s assertions. “Today Rahul ji repeated the entire speech of the BJP in Delhi. Tell the public what agreement has been reached between the BJP and Congress?” asked Mr Kejriwal. In another post, Mr Kejriwal said,” Modiji puts people in jail even by making fake cases like liquor scam. Why haven’t you and your family been arrested in open and shut cases like National Herald? How did Robert Vadra get a clean chit from BJP? It is better if you don’t preach on fear and bravery. The country knows who is a coward and who is brave.”
Despite the acrimony surrounding the unsuccessful seat-share negotiations for the Haryana election and the Congress’s significant setback, it was anticipated that the AAP and Congress would run together in the Delhi election. In actuality, Mr. Gandhi was arguably the most senior Congressman who pushed for the partnership to be maintained.
However, since a failed partnership following the 2013 election, there has long been mistrust and uneasiness inside each party’s Delhi units. The two joined hands to keep the BJP out of power, but fell apart two years into the term, leading to a mid-term election the AAP dominated.
Mr. Kejriwal and the Congress announced they would run separately after the weight of unsuccessful negotiations in Haryana and the bickering that preceded the pooling of the seven seats in Delhi for the April-June federal election—all of which the BJP won—became too much to bear. Since then, there have been intense attacks on one another. For instance, the Congress has also assailed Mr. Kejriwal for his claims that the BJP mixed “poison” in the Yamuna water that the saffron party-ruled Haryana government was supplying to the city.
Delhi’s 70 Assembly seats will vote in a single phase on February 5, with results due three days later. The AAP thumped the BJP and the Congress in the last two polls, winning 67 and 62 seats. This time it faces a much tougher challenge – from the BJP.