Anna must have realized the over-ambitious nature of Kejriwal’s mission when the latter broke away from the Ralegan Siddhi crusader because of the latter’s reluctance to enter politics. For a time after that, it appeared that the chela was right after all and the guru wrong since Kejriwal went from strength to strength, gathering supporters from different sectors of society – aviation, banking, the film world, even a grandson of the Mahatma – to reach the pinnacle of success in the Delhi elections.

However, after the trouncing in the parliamentary polls, the party has started disintegrating with an ever-smiling member and a clever-clever ideologue having either left the party or are not as closely associated with it as before. The reason for the blows from which the AAP has suffered is not far to seek. Ever since its members began their political journey by pretending to be messiahs who have come to rescue the people from evil politicians, the party’s demise was always on the cards.

The kind of self-righteous pomposity which Kejriwal displayed – the CPI’s A.B. Bardhan once cautioned him against regarding himself as the repository of all wisdom – could only have succeeded if he had shown a commensurate tactical skill. This meant that along with promising the people the moon, he would have had to tread carefully among politicians who have been in the field for a much longer period.

Kejriwal’s oversized ego convinced him, however, that he had already won half the battle by painting his rivals in the darkest of hues without realizing that such unsubstantiated charges could land him in a legal tangle. This is exactly what happened when the law finally caught up with him. He may have thought that a jail term will make him a hero like those incarcerated during the freedom movement. But, his party’s defeat at about the same time robbed him of a martyr’s halo.

Kejriwal’s mistake was that he had bitten off more than he could chew. He had misinterpreted the popular anger with the Congress’s failures as a rejection of the entire system and an endorsement of his brand of messianic politics. His clubbing together of the Congress and the BJP as partners steeped in the iniquities of the establishment did appeal to a section of those who were fed up with the mainstream parties. He might have got away with this audacious bombardment of the headquarters, to quote Mao Zedong, if he had the patience to build on the AAP’s success in the Delhi elections.

But, like a petulant child who wants more, Kejriwal squandered the opportunity to demonstrate his capacities as a leader when he became the chief minister. Instead, he allowed his rabble-rousing instincts to get the better of him and resigned, thinking that the AAP would consolidate its political position further via the Lok Sabha elections.

But, now that his tactics have misfired and the BJP is riding high, Kejriwal will have to start all over again, but without the high expectations which marked his first few months in politics. The chances are that he will gradually fade away for, although there is talk of an informal alliance between the AAP and the Congress in the Delhi assembly elections, the palpable weaknesses of both the parties are hardly likely to give the BJP sleepless nights.

If the AAP’s fall has been precipitous, the CPI(M)’s has been a steady decline. From an all-time high of 44 seats (5.66 per cent of votes) in 2004, it fell to 16 seats (5.33 per cent) in 2009 and to nine seats (3 per cent) this year in the 50th year of its formation. What is significant, however, is that the drop in the number of seats in 2009 followed the party’s withdrawal of support to the Manmohan Singh government in 2008 because of its decision to sign the nuclear deal.

Since the CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat, was the moving spirit behind the rupture with the government, leading to a falling out with Somnath Chatterjee as he refused to follow the party line, being the Speaker, Karat can be said to have read the situation completely wrong. He found out that anti-Americanism is no longer as effective as in the days of “amar naam, tomar naam, Vietnam,Vietnam” and that the Speaker of a “bourgeois” parliament cannot be expected to behave like the presiding officer of a national people’s congress.

Karat’s initiative in forming a Third Front with Mayawati as the prime ministerial candidate also failed and was described later as a cut-and-paste job which could have led nowhere. Notwithstanding these bungles, Karat remains ensconced in his party throne, showing that the Nehru-Gandhis are not the only ones who do not let failures unsettle them. (IPA Service)