AAP'S SORDID SAGA

A week is a long time in politics, especially in election season. On May 10, the BJP was in shock after the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Aam Aadmi Party national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case (the BJP top leadership even called the SC order “extraordinary”).

- Avishek G. Dastidar , Kaushik Deka and Anilesh S. Mahajan

Kejriwal re-entered the poll campaign with a bang, making explosive allegations about the shifting power structure in the BJP top leadership.

A week later, though, the tables had been turned. At the centre of it was the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, 39, who alleged that she was beaten up at Kejriwal’s official residence by his long-time private assistant Bibhav Kumar on May 13. Soon, AAP was forced into fire-fighting mode, and the BJP was back in the game, launching back-to-back rallies by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief J.P. Nadda and Amit Shah. 

With many of its 20 LS candidates (in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana) up in the last two legs of the polls, the controversy has disrupted their campaign momentum. Unwilling to cede an inch, AAP alleged a political conspiracy, even as Kejriwal dared the BJP to arrest all his leaders in one go after Bibhav was taken into police custody on May 18. “They arrested my PA... I say, why arrest our leaders one by one? Take all of us in one go,” he said.

The Congress, AAP’s ally in Delhi, has taken a cautious stand on the whole sordid saga. When questioned, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said she would stand by any woman who was a victim of an atrocity. In the INDIA bloc, the Congress is the only party with a direct seat-sharing agreement with AAP. Yet, so far it has maintained a careful distance from Kejriwal, not even addressing a joint press conference with him. Party sources say they will maintain silence till May 25 when Delhi and Haryana—where the two have an alliance—go to the polls. All bets will be off in the last phase of the Punjab polls, where they are pitted against each other.