Why Arvind Kejriwal, Not Rahul Gandhi, is a Better Bet to Salvage the INDIA Alliance

In the 2024 general elections, if there is one factor that has brought the opposition parties together, it’s Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest. Ever since Kejriwal’s arrest on March 21 until his release about a week ago, opposition parties found a common theme to agree upon, regardless of party lines, ideological differences, and poll ambitions.

The arrest of an opposition party leader and a sitting chief minister rattled other parties, probably fearing similar actions by the ruling BJP. Kejriwal, unlike Rahul Gandhi, is a mass leader and a convincing orator with a proven winning track record (again, unlike Gandhi). In fact, for a united opposition national face, Kejriwal would be a much more accepted political leader among the INDIA alliance than Gandhi himself.

Kejriwal’s arrest a mistake for BJP?

For this reason, Kejriwal’s bail and return to the poll campaigns made the opponents visibly upset, prompting them to look for counter steps. Even the cases against Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor scam were interpreted among voters as political vendetta. The BJP got a breakthrough with the Swati Maliwal episode.

The dramatic turn of events caught the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) off guard. While the facts of the case are yet to be known and CCTV footage tells a different story, the accusations made by one of Kejriwal’s own generals and the arrest of his close aide Bibhav Kumar came as a setback to the AAP. These issues diverted Kejriwal from his core focus during the campaign and gave an opportunity to the BJP’s media sympathizers to raise counter questions. How the scenario will pan out is something one needs to wait and watch.

One thing is clear. For the INDIA alliance, Kejriwal is a better bet than Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate. Gandhi is not a mass leader and doesn’t have the charisma to keep the powerful opposition parties together. More importantly, under Gandhi’s leadership, Congress lacks the administrative abilities to counter Amit Shah’s electioneering skills. Just after the polls in the initial phase, Shah assigned all the star candidates of the BJP, including Annamalai in Tamil Nadu, to campaign for other candidates elsewhere. On the other hand, Congress’s response has been lethargic so far. Gandhi’s line of attack on Modi citing his Adani-Ambani connection too has been backfiring badly.

The BJP, and Modi in particular, has unapologetically defended the wealth creators while Gandhi is seen as anti-corporate. Furthermore, the Congress misadventures with respect to wealth redistribution have also backfired among a large section of voters, which was cleverly used by Modi in his speeches.

Modi Vs who?

As polls enter the final stages, the biggest advantage of the BJP-led NDA is that it has a solid PM face to show to voters in Modi, whereas the INDIA alliance has no consensus on the PM candidate yet. In fact, it remains a group of parties led by regional satraps where every leader wants to wear the PM’s cap. The alliance is seen as a mix of opportunists bonded by poll ambitions, not ideology. However, chances of opposition unity in favor of Kejriwal are unlikely as Brand Kejriwal as a PM is a threat to Rahul Gandhi’s long-cherished PM ambitions.