As his then mentor Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement galvanised the youth, Kejriwal emerged as its chief strategist. In the sweltering heat of Ramlila Maidan, he transformed the arcane Jan Lokpal Bill into compelling street rhetoric. And when he announced a nascent political party named after the “aam aadmi” in November 2012 at the historic Jantar Mantar, it marked the commoner’s metamorphosis from activist to politician.
Less than a year later, the infant party was racing to take the establishment heavyweights – the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. It emerged from the melee of the poll season with an astonishing 28 seats, The commoner had gripped the pulse of the Capital. A new political era had begun.
That was in 2013. Twelve years later, on Saturday, that story came full circle.
Kejriwal – now shorn of his muffler, ballpoint pen, and once-signature cough – crashed to the worst defeat of his political career. No longer a commoner but one of India’s top leaders and a two-term chief minister, the 56-year-old now faces an existential crisis as his party lost control of the city that acted as his political cradle but which now has banished is party to the opposition benches — he will not even be in assembly — for the next five years.
The story of his rise and stumble is a dizzying saga – from a political neophyte who once sat on dharnas outside government offices and quit after a whirlwind 49-day tenure seemingly on a whim to a wizened political leader who carefully built an aura of good governance and welfare delivery, only to find himself outsmarted by a mix of the lieutenant governor’s intransigence and anti-incumbency.
Worse still, Kejriwal suffered a shock defeat from his pocket borough of New Delhi by 3,925 votes at the hands of BJP leader Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma – a once-unthinkable outcome in a constituency personally nurtured by the leader where he won in 2020 with 61% vote share.
“We have never suffered defeat in the Delhi assembly elections; that is why this defeat, especially the defeat of our top leaders, is something that the party workers will need time to come out of. In the meantime, it has been decided that we will lay low,” said a party leader, asking not to be named.
Despite a battery of people gathered outside, Kejriwal did not step out of his 5, Feroz Shah Road bungalow through the day, only releasing a sombre video message later in the day.
“We accept the mandate of the people with great humility. I congratulate the Bharatiya Janata Party for this victory, and I hope they will fulfil all the promises for which people have voted them,” Kejriwal said in the video.
As news spread that the former CM was trailing from his home turf, a silence enveloped the AAP office near Mandi House in central Delhi. The gates were pulled shut soon after.
“We are not in politics for power, we look at politics as a way to serve people… We will continue that work. I want to congratulate all workers of the AAP. They fought well, they worked very hard, and they dealt with a lot this election, Kejriwal further said.
The defeat marks the beginning of a new phase in the leader’s career, one that will need him to reinvent his political style.
First, when he became a leader of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, he was an angry disruptor. Then, when he set up a political party, became chief minister in 2013, went on dharna, contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi in 2014, and attempted to expand the party nationally, he was seen as a man in a hurry, an inexperienced politician whose ambitions far outstripped his party’s base and experience. But in his third phase, he hunkered down, and won Delhi in 2015 and 2020, confronting the Centre on governance issues, expanding in and winning Punjab, and evolving as an administrator.
The fourth phase came over the last couple of years as he battled an avalanche of corruption allegations – from those related to the now-scrapped liquor policy to charges of exorbitant renovations at the chief minister’s residence.
Now, he faces a new test – as the leader of a party that’s been booted out of Delhi and is coming up for re-election in Punjab, but also one that has a substantial presence in Parliament and a significant voice in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). He’ll have to hold the party together and battle a barrage of legal cases. The aspects of his career that held him in good stead – a middle-class background, a professional career, a stellar social service career and little ideological baggage – now appear diminished in front of the BJP’s juggernaut.
His actions over the next few months will shape this new phase in his career.
