The BJP threw all its might in the canvassing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah leading it. Disadvantage BJP was that it could not project a chief ministerial candidate. Kejriwal took advantage of this and repeated taunted Modi and Shah.

In any election, there is a lot of rhetoric from all sides. But this time personal attacks and communal overtones reached unprecedented level. Kejriwal was called a terrorist more than once, even by a union minister. Delhi CM says it happen ed because BJP does not have anything to counter the work that has been done in Delhi. The BJP has tried every think but failed to punch holes in “our work”. BJP came out with photographs of some of his schools but these turned out to be fake. It came out with some videos of Mohalla clinics but these too turned out to be fake. It came up with water issue but that too didn’t wash with the people. They were left with nothing. They gathered all parties—JD(U), RJD and LJP —and formed an alliance, but that did not work. Now they have fielded 200 MPs, 70 union ministers, 11 chief ministers without any results. They have no options left and are trying to popularize on the lines of Hindu-Muslims.

Kejriwal also said Delhi government does not have any role in implanting the Nirbhaya order. “We do not have the police or judicial system under us. Our role is confined to forwarding the files received from MHA to prison and once received from prison to MHA.”

Improving schools, he said, is a national issue, not confined to Delhi. Roads and hospitals should be better. Twenty first century India will not be built by CAA and hospitals and progress in space programme. In the past five years, Delhi has given the country a model of development. This model can build 21st century India, Delhi CM said.

He offered to open a window of co-operation with the corporations by giving them funds for specific projects. He also recalled how the Anna movement was all about hardcore patriotism and expressed concerned about violence wracking university campus. He reiterated his commitment to work for the people of Delhi.

After an eventful first term political startup AAP is seeking votes on the basis of its governance record, while BJP is going all out to unseat it. Until about mid-2017 AAP and BJP constantly baited each other, as a consequence of which governance had suffered since the structure of authority in the national capital is a divided one. Since then chief minister Kejriwal appears to have kept head down, toned down the theatrics and focused on administration — perhaps out of a realization that voters will tire of the constant search for enemies and demand results.

It’s to his credit that he sees his government’s primary job as delivering on education and health—areas that have been traditionally under- emphasized by India’s political class. BJP, however, has had plenty of opportunity to dissect Kejriwal’s claim and question his purported succession on these and other governance related areas, and it’s a little surprising that the principal opposition party hasn’t made full use of that opportunity. Rather than Kejriwal’s performance, BJP has bet on making the election a mandate on Shaheen Bagh, even if painting AAP and Shaheen Bagh protesters with same brush is a bit of stretch. This has occurred in the midst of hate fuelled shootings, campus, violence and gross in competence in policing.

Kejriwal has kept his distance from the protests and placed the onus for resolution on the Centre, with its control over police and traffic. By supporting Article 370 nullification, opposing CAA, and focusing on work done by his government, AAP has staked out a middle ground in the last couple of years. BJP’s campaign, by contrast, places a premium on national security in a local election. This is a novel plank, and it is anybody’s guess how Delhi’s electorate responds to an assembly election to issues not of local roads, hospitals or plumbing, but of an abstract nationalism that consists of taking on spectral enemies who occasionally morph into the figures of opposition parties and leader, if not Shaheen Bagh protesters.

BJP’s strategy has, for instance, resulted in attempts to characterize Kejriwal as “terrorist”. Some have seen in the strategy a way of energizing its core cadres while getting out the Hindu vote. If this strategy succeeds, it will have ramification for future elections as well. We will know by next Tuesday, when results are declared. (IPA Service)