Once upon a time, there was an Arvind Kejriwal. A crusader against corruption, brought forgotten words, such as integrity and idealism, to political discourse and created immense possibilities of an alternative model of clean governance. His first oath ceremony in Ramlila Maidan in the winter of 2013 was not felt as a momentary celebration of people’s power.
Delhi 2025 elections results
It was more like the beginning of a movement for a positive change in the way policy was carried out in the country. Thousands of older men and women had appeared from every corner of Ignorated India, from distant states such as Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Even his interpretation outside the “Insaan Ka Insaan was Ho Bhaichara” (film: Paigham), was not shock absorber.
For them, in summary, Kejriwal was an icon of hope for a new and intrepid Indian.
In the weeks and months that followed, Kejriwal grew in reputation as an individual and political. Often dressed in a shrub shirt, carrying a cheap pen in the pocket of his shirt and with common cappals, he became the perfect image of austerity. And he maintained his electoral promise of free water and electricity, schemes that attracted him to the low -income class of the city.
When AAPAFormed in 2012, he returned for the second time to the position in 2015 with an overwhelming majority to stop the Juggernaut Modishah, Kejriwal became a hero of all the opponents of BJP. And yes, despite the always present cough and the comforting silencer around his head, he slept in the streets of Delhi in the cold winter as a Protestant Prime Minister. Those days the former IRS-of Ficer turned into an activist turned into a politician, also receiver of the Ramon Magsayay award, walked through the talk.
But over the years, slow but safe, the sacred personality of a cm with a frugal lifestyle disappeared. And, on Saturday, the subsequent effect was seen in the result of the surveys of the Delhi Assembly. Two complete terms and 49 days since he assumed the position for the first time in 2013, AAP suffered a devastating and humiliating defeat. And Kejriwal, the founder of the game and Beating Heart, who once had overcome the formidable CM Sheila Dixit for more than 25,000 votes, lost his own seat for more than 4,000 votes. AAP still achieved a healthy 44% votes, but that is 9 percentage points lower than previous assembly surveys.
The journalist Ashutosh, previously a prominent member of AAP, says that two things massively damaged the image of Kejriwal: the liquor case of 2022 and the Bungalow Cm controversy. “No one expected a man, who used to say that ministers and CMS should live on two -room flats, to spend more than 40 million rupees on his own bungalow. Kejriwal entered politics in the hope of changing it. Instead, politics changed it, ”he says.
The liquor case of several million million rupees, which is still in court, took Kejriwal to spend five months in Tihaha. These developments, says Ashutosh, made Kejriwal lose his moral aura in the last five years. “It was his presentation card in the first three elections of the Assembly, the reason for the mass victories of AAP in 2015 and 2020,” he says.
Social commentator Santosh Desai also talks about the personal aura of the leader of the AAP due to the case of liquor and the controversy of the renewal of the house. But he also adds that BJP hindered Kejriwal and his party of any significant action of the local government. “His hands were tied and the room to maneuver was drastically reduced,” he says.
Desai also says that Kejriwal’s situation was similar to someone who, to stay politically relevant, reaches an unrecognizable place from the original point of his trip. “It may not be communal personally, but to neutralize the right wing, it began to practice a version of it, so that the party is not vulnerable in that front. Kejriwal lost clarity about who he was and what he represented, allowing the BJP to maximize the situation for his advantage. Together, he created a situation in which the public felt that Kejirwal was no longer the figure that once was, ”he says.
Free electricity (200 units), Libre Agua (20 kiloliters), improved government schools, better functioning of government hospitals (including free medicine) -Kejriwal created a positive book book for gifts that stimulate low-income classes, turning them into its dedicated constitution. AAP also offered free bus trips to women, but the condition of deterioration of Delhi’s roads and contamination without control stressed that the party was not paying enough attention to their central works and the middle class of the city.
Desai says that AAP separated the eyes of the ball, from his main call card, which is taking civic governance seriously. “They only lived what was done in their early years. After that, he became much more about the retention of power, ”he says.
The politicalologist Dipankar Gupta offers a new angle for the list of explanations. He says that AAP left a movement but, over the years, he lost the “dimension of the movement”, participatory, enthusiastic and objective oriented, of the party. “Without the ‘movement’ element, he lost his reason for being and became a competitor of the established parties. Structurally, AAP was never a part oriented to administration, ”he says.
Hilal Ahmed de CSDS offers a similar view. He states that AAP had lost its ideological uniqueness even before this choice. “The paintings or leaders associated with him depended largely on the success of the party over the years. After this defeat, they could not find any attraction in the party or the figure of Kejriwal, ”he says.
So what’s still for Kejriwal?
“You must find a new language for democracy, not just representation and choice. Otherwise, it will remain caught in the numerical pathology of the welfare state, ”says social scientist Shiv Visvanathan. In other words, Kejriwal needs to reinvent his policy. The question is: Does the street fighter of the past have a stomach for a scrap in a hopeless battle?