L-G’s actions, excise probe, AAP-da led to AAP’s election setback

BJP campaign in Delhi Assembly election led by PM Modi against AAP, highlighting corruption and development issues.

In the first week of January, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign for the Delhi Assembly election started with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the attack from the front on the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

It was on Mr. Modi’s face and “Modi’s guarantee” that the BJP fought the rest of the election, without a chief ministerial face. But there was another man, though never part of the election campaigning, who had been keeping the AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal on edge — central government-appointed Lieutenant Governor (L-G) V.K. Saxena.

On January 3, Mr. Modi coined the term “AAP-da”(disaster), which is also a wordplay on the ruling AAP. He said that “AAP-da” had befallen Delhi in the past 10 years and promised people to get rid of the disaster that has stalled the national capital’s development.

The main focus of his speeches was establishing two things: first, there has been no development and no welfare of people in Delhi under the AAP, and secondly the AAP has become corrupt.

But it seems that the ground work for the political message was laid by the BJP over three years in two ways: first, Mr. Saxena was appointed as the new L-G of the national capital in May 2022, and secondly, a change in law in May 2023.

Though the AAP had run-ins with the previous L-G’s too, the friction between the AAP and the L-G’s office worsened to unprecedented levels under Mr. Saxena’s tenure, who unlike his two predecessors was not a retired IAS officer and was seen by many as being close to the BJP at the Centre.

Within two months of his appointment, Mr. Saxena in July 2022 recommended a CBI probe into the Delhi excise policy, which led to the arrest of top AAP leaders, including party chief Arvind Kejriwal and his trusted deputy Manish Sisodia.