The arc of Arvind Kejriwal’s public life: Anti-corruption crusader to battling graft accusations

While his massive electoral successes in the Delhi Assembly polls did not convert into Lok Sabha poll wins, his party sprung a surprise in 2022 by sweeping the state polls in Punjab, winning 92 of the 117 seats.

Meteoric rise

Kejriwal shot to the limelight almost a decade ago as an anti-corruption crusader as a part of the team of Anna Hazare who sat on two hunger strikes in Delhi – in April and August 2011, demanding a Jan Lokpal (ombudsman) to rein in “political corruption”.

Swearing- in – Ceremony for the third time Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with Manish Sisodia from AAP at Ramleela Maidan, New Delhi. (Express Archives)

Hazare’s India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, of which Kejriwal was a part, is said to have played a key role in denting the electoral prospects of the Congress-led UPA government in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It is believed that the BJP, with its large organisational base, took advantage of the “anti-Congress wave” created by the movement and stormed to power winning 282 seats.

Kejriwal, the politician

Kejriwal, who floated the AAP in October 2012, promised the people of Delhi a “clean government” that would work towards their welfare and tasted electoral success in the 2013 Delhi Assembly polls, where his party won 28 of the 70 seats on offer. Kejriwal defeated Congress veteran and three-time CM Sheila Dikshit by more than 25,000 votes from the New Delhi seat.

With the BJP falling four short of a majority with 32 seats, Kejriwal was sworn in as CM with the support of the Congress, which won eight seats. Sticking to his image of a “common man in politics”, he took a Metro to reach Ramlila Maidan for his oath-taking ceremony. He resigned 49 days later alleging that the Assembly was stonewalling the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The following year, Kejriwal showcased his ambition to “go national” by taking on the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the Lok Sabha elections and he emerged as the runner-up to him garnering more than two lakh votes, though he lost by a margin of over 2.7 lakh votes.

One year later, he again grabbed the limelight after the AAP won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly polls. Following the stunning victory, differences began to emerge within the party’s leadership eventually leading to the ouster of founding members like Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and Prashant Bhushan, who said the party had been reduced to a ‘khap’. Internal Lokpal Admiral L Ramdas too was shown the exit.

This led to the growing perception that Kejriwal, who was once a poster boy of the “common man”, was “autocratically” running the party.

With his government’s firm focus on subsidies, education sector and health infrastructure, Kejriwal’s popularity grew even as the Lokpal issue, over which he had resigned as CM, went into oblivion.

Once admired by supporters of the right-wing as also liberal and left opinion, Kejriwal’s relationship with them gradually turned uneasy. While initially the right-wing viewed him as someone who could benefit them by dislodging the Congress, the other side saw the image of honesty and simplicity as “neo-Gandhian hope” for the country.

He drew the ire of BJP supporters by contesting against Modi, and also of critics of Modi, for his “ideologically agnostic” service delivery model, pilgrimage scheme for senior citizens, Hanuman Chalisa pitch as well as his refusal to visit Shaheen Bagh during the anti-CAA protests earned him flak.

Despite his soaring popularity, AAP failed to win even a single of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. However, the following year, the party yet again stormed to power in the Assembly polls winning 62 seats as the BJP was reduced to eight.

Spreading AAP’s wings

Two years later, the party stormed to power in Punjab as it reduced the infighting-hit Congress to just 18 seats and also managed to secure victory in five Assembly seats in Gujarat which helped it be elevated to the status of a national party.

The AAP, under Kejriwal, has shown the ability to expand its footprint over the last few years despite having a relatively small voter base. With the Congress shrinking, the AAP is seen as a potential opponent to the BJP, which observers say, is trying to deal a fatal blow to the Kejriwal-led outfit by arresting its most popular face over alleged corruption – a plank on which it saw a meteoric rise.

AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, his family and party leaders greet party workers and a huge crowd of supporters at the party HQ in New Delhi after the party’s spectacular win in the Delhi assembly polls. (Express Archives)

In its “pursuit”, the BJP has repeatedly accused Kejriwal — once the face of simplicity in politics – of renovating his official bungalow for Rs 52.7 crore, reiterating its allegations that the “anti-corruption crusader” has gone back on all his promises.