Opinion Express View on assembly poll in capital: The idea of Delhi

Delhi has voted and much will depend on what the voters have said. Because even though it may be less than a full state, Delhi is not just another city. It is a mini-India that is home to diverse aspirations and teeming dreams. Many come to Delhi to be and to become, in search of a better work and life for themselves and education for their children, and to be part of a larger story. The outcome of the electoral contest in this city will, therefore, not just decide the fate of the three main players in the field. It will also strike sparks and echoes across the country. Of course, the stakes are high for the incumbent AAP, its main challenger BJP and a Congress that has for a long spell been out of the reckoning.

For Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP, born from an anti-corruption movement that played out in full view of the nation under the Delhi arclights, its unusually rapid rise shaped by its high-visibility setting, a third term, or not, would be critical to its next steps as a party. Its first full tenure after the comprehensive win in 2015 framed the “Delhi model” of governance it sought to put an imprimatur on and carry beyond Delhi (it succeeded in Punjab, but not in Goa or Gujarat). It turned its attention to setting up mohalla clinics and renovating the government school, alongside bijli-paani subsidies. But the second term saw a visible stalling and slowdown amid growing hostilities with the Centre led by the BJP. From its top leadership being sent to jail in the alleged excise policy scam, to accusations that public money was misspent on refurbishing the CM’s residence extravagantly, the AAP has had its back against the wall as it sought to guard the turf of an elected government from moves by the Centre’s nominee, the L-G. On its success or failure in this election, then, will hinge its future trajectory as a party — and given that it is the only non-Congress party with governments in two states so far, the future contours of the national Opposition could also be rearranged by the AAP’s tally. For the BJP, which returned to power at the Centre last year, but without a majority, a win in Delhi, where it has been out of power for 27 years, coming after its victory in Haryana and Maharashtra sweep, could rehabilitate its winning streak. That the Modi versus Kejriwal battle is a grudge match with larger consequences could also be gauged from the PM’s reply to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in Lok Sabha on Tuesday — he didn’t take names but Kejriwal was clearly the target of pointed swipes in his speech.

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But the outcome in this election will be important, most of all, for what it means for the idea of Delhi. The new government will face the challenge of easing the pressures and strains on it, and of making it more encompassing. India’s capital city needs a plan that addresses and includes everyone who seeks to make it their own. A plan that makes the city more comfortable and hospitable, and at the same time, helps it move in step with the vaulting aspirations of those who live in it.