By: Sushil Kutty
The CBI action against AAP excise and education minister Manish Sisodia is betraying uneasiness in the BJP. More so, after America’s ‘No.1’ newspaper, the New York Times put Sisodia on its front-page, declaring him the world’s ‘No.1 education minister’. This, two days after AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal launched the party’s ‘Make India No.1’ campaign.
That hit the BJP plumb in the temple. For, only the world’s No.1 prime minister can ‘Make India No.1’. And here was Kejriwal promising the impossible come AAP’s time to rule! Could it be that Kejriwal had just then proclaimed himself challenger No.1 to Prime Minister Modi come 2024?
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Is Modi and BJP apprehensive that Arvind Kejriwal will sweep general elections 2024? More so, because AAP’s freebies-loaded politics has in it the mojo to sweep elections, like it did in Delhi, and then in Punjab. Also, with another PM-aspirant, Mamata Banerjee, buttoned up in corruption scandals, the Modi government’s target has shifted to AAP.
The CBI raid on Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia wasn’t for harassment’s sake. Sisodia, hailed as the world’s No.1 education minister by America’s No.1 newspaper, the New York Times, was raided by India’s No.1 central investigating agency and the world’s No.1 political party by size sent out ominous signals that Sisodia could be jailed any time.
Fact is, even as the CBI was contemplating raiding Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal was announcing AAP’s ‘Make India No.1’ campaign, knowing well that to ‘Make India No.1’ requires the hand of a Prime Minister, not that of chief minister. Now, Kejriwal will have to make the cut and become PM.
But right now, Kejriwal and AAP are paying for Manish Sisodia on the NYT front-page. Kejriwal probably jumped the gun by hinting at a prime ministerial run. With that there are three opposition PM aspirants—Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Kejriwal, each of them positioning themselves as a 2024 Modi challenger, their ambitions overcoming hesitation.
Of them, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s posters and hoardings had sprung up in distant Karnataka and Kerala. Trinamool also sought to add Goa to West Bengal. And ‘Didi’ briefly campaigned for the Samajwadi Party in Varanasi, Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
For a while, Didi also made common cause with regional party heads like K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Uddhav Thackeray, and MK Stalin. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was for Opposition unity, even as Rahul Gandhi displayed only reluctance to join the party. But Goa came a cropper, and the Congress couldn’t care less. Also, BJP continued to remain invincible in the Hindi heartland.
Now, Mamata Banerjee’s challenge has weakened, and receded; yet another Modi challenger compelled to back off with the use of CBI/ED. The arrest of TMC minister Partha Chatterjee and the mountains of cash made it downhill for Mamata going forward—stifling her bid to challenge Modi in 2024. And while that has given breathing space for Modi, the real beneficiary is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who hasn’t given up on his pent up ambition to become Prime Minister.
The fact is, Nitish Kumar never wanted Narendra Modi to be Prime Minister. And Modi was fully aware of this. Modi and Kumar have been uneasy pals. And calls for “Kumar for Prime Minister” have only grown in the last couple of weeks. The Bihar Chief Minister perhaps commands wider acceptance in the Hindi heartland of UP & Bihar. More than Mamata, and Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi Chief Minister isn’t coy about becoming PM. The manner in which Kejriwal has launched his bid to become Prime Minister has rattled the BJP, evident from the fact that the self-centred legacy media hasn’t stopped talking of ‘Modi Vs. Kejriwal’.
Even the wantonly pro-Modi Republic TV is behaving as if it does not care whether Arvind Kejriwal replaces Narendra Modi or not? Maybe, back of the Republic’s mind must be that more than one opposition PM candidate challenging Modi would help Modi overcome the opposition to his becoming a third time Prime Minister.
It will be interesting going forward with the pantomime. The alacrity with which AAP latched on to the finer points of Modi’s I-Day speech showed the seriousness of Kejriwal’s bid to go for Modi’s jugular. If Modi sought to impress the great unwashed with ‘paanchprann’, Kejriwal came out with ‘paanchkaam’.
Modi will have to think up another anagram, or start-up to take on Kejriwal and AAP. Some would say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met his match in Arvind Kejriwal. The AAP convener is not a sharp dresser, but that doesn’t make him any less flamboyant than the current occupant of the hot seat.
Kejriwal has ruled out any truck with the rest of the Opposition in as far as the PM-candidate is concerned. AAP’s ‘Make India No.1’ is a thinly disguised ‘Make Kejriwal No.1 Challenger’ of Modi’, which leaves the non-AAP opposition, the ‘mahagatbandhan’, to choose between Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar.
That said, there’s still months to go for 2024, and for the next general elections. One thing is for sure though, unlike in 2019, it will not be smooth and a free run for Narendra Modi. Quite different from 2014 and 2019, Modi will be up against a face with a name to it. Most likely, two faces with two names—the mahagathbandhan’s Nitish Kumar, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal. (IPA Service)
