Kejriwal Stings Bedi with Cutting Edge Campaign

NEW DELHI: The Obama visit might have captured the headlines but the battle in Delhi for the Assembly elections is going on relentless with just about ten days before the capital goes to the polls.

BJP candidate for chief minister Kiran Bedi is finding the going rough, with little support from the local party unit and considerable opposition from groups of voters like the Delhi lawyers who burnt an effigy of her and are opposing her candidature tooth and nail. In contrast reports from the field suggest that the Aam Aadmi Party is gaining some ground amongst Delhi’s urban poor.

The tensions are palpable, however, with both sides making sure that no opportunity is allowed to pass without making respective points. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said he had not been invited for the Republic Day parade. I haven't got any invitation. If protocol says it should be sent, then they should have sent it to me. If not, then they shouldn't. There shouldn't be any politics over it," Kejriwal told reporters.

Kiran Bedi, on the other hand, was in full attendance attracting the television cameras on occasion. She emerged from the Parade laughing at Kejriwal with "I think he is playing sob sob. I think he must grow up. Invitations come not when you desire. They come by something else but they are never demanded, they come by rules .. “

But AAP had the last laugh on this occasion with a photograph (above) going viral on the social media with derisive comments. This showed Kiran Bedi standing under an umbrella being held by someone else. Who is this man? social media ‘posts’ and ‘tweets’ wanted to know with many a comment against Bedi for not being able to hold her own umbrella.

AAP’s auto rickshaw campaign continues. Significantly auto rickshaw drivers are a solid AAP constituency in Delhi and have been advertising its posters across the city. Earlier before Bedi was declared the CM candidate by the BJP, state leader Jagdish Mukhi was spewing venom about a poster campaign that had his mugshot alongside that of Kejriwal with the voters being asked who they would prefer as the CM. AAP has replaced this now with posters showing Kejriwal, 46, as “imandar” (honest) and Bedi, 65 as “avsarvadi” (opportunist). An angry Bedi has sent Kejriwal a legal notice.

The AAP campaign is certainly picking up with target areas such as resettlement colonies, shanties, Delhi outskirts with a dominant Jat vote responding fairly positively according to reports with The Citizen. AAP is hoping for a breakthrough in the Jat vote that had been with the BJP but is now worried about the Land Acquisition Bill that has been turned into a fairly strong campaign against the government by Kejriwal and his party.

AAP has been in fact ahead on the campaign through out. It started the poster campaign on auto rickshaws that were rather effective and it took the BJP some time to catch up. It was first on to FM radio with Kejriwal’s personalised messages to the voters being broadcast for days on ends before the BJP woke up, and now with its money is dominating the air waves.

However, AAP has now found another platform with a web-based radio service, “‘Mango - Aam Aadmi Ka Radio or Common Man’s Radio’ talks about the campaign and takes on the rivals. The party is publicising its new service through the social media with a tweet maintaining, party’s “The 24x7 web-radio station of AAP. Must listen and RT!” Twitter is free, and the message was retweeted over 200 times within the span of some hours. Jingles are played as are Kejriwal’s speeches in what is now a cheaper, and more cost effective outlet than the advertisement spots on FM radio frequencies.

Bedi is counting on the middle class constituency with the BJP having brought her in to cut into this vote and consolidate it. Her supporters are optimistic that a campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi will bolster her stock dramatically. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been pressed into service with its Delhi wing now using the services as it were of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad women’s wing Durga Vahini for the campaign. The RSS is setting up the election infrastructure for Bedi now, with a sulking BJP Delhi unit not particularly interested in helping the campaign.