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New Delhi: Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been roped in by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the upcoming assembly elections, has been seen attacking the Congress on its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

These attacks are not random, but are calculated and a part of Kishor’s strategy to corner the Congress in Delhi in order to make the election a bipolar fight — between the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP — and not triangular like the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ThePrint has learnt.

On 21 December, Kishor, the vice-president of BJP ally JD(U), targeted the Congress’ top leadership for not hitting the streets against the CAA.

“Congress is not on streets and its top leadership has been largely absent in the fight against CAA-NRC. The least party could do it to make ALL Congress CMs join other CMs who have said that they will not allow NRC in their states. Or else these statements means nothing,” he tweeted.

https://twitter.com/PrashantKishor/status/1208247357671923714?s=20

Again on 30 December, Kishor questioned Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s silence on the NRC.

“Taking part in dharnas, demonstrations — that is all legitimate and valid, (but) why there is not even a single official statement coming from the Congress president on the issue is something beyond (my) understanding,” he said in an interview to the ANI.

Kishor added the Congress president or Congress Working Committee (CWC) must ask all the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states to declare that they will not allow the NRC in their states.

Sources in Kishor’s advocacy group Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) say all these attacks on the Congress are not to push the party to agitate against the CAA or NRC, but to send a message to the voters that the Congress isn’t fighting for the Muslims.

Kishor doesn’t want the votes of the Muslims, which form 12 per cent of Delhi’s population, to get divided between the AAP and Congress and he is, therefore, deliberately trying to corner the party ahead of the election as a weaker Congress will favour the AAP, said the sources.

The CAA offers to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh if they faced religious persecution there — provided they entered the country on or before 31 December 2014. The NRC means the “register containing details of Indian citizens living in India and outside India”. There are fears that when the two are put together, it could alienate Muslims.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP changes its colours this election season — to yellow and black

‘If Congress gets stronger, it will cut AAP votes’

Sanjay Kumar, director of the think tank Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, says if the Congress gets stronger, it would harm the AAP’s chances of winning.

“If the Congress gets stronger it will cut AAP votes and not the BJP’s because the base of both AAP and Congress is identical. Congress’ traditional voter base comes from the jhuggi clusters. And now, both the AAP and the BJP are banking on them,” he said.

Kumar said the AAP is also concerned over the Muslim vote bank, which consolidated behind the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections.

In this general elections in Delhi, a three-pronged battle between the AAP, BJP and Congress benefitted the BJP the most.

Not only did the party bag all seven seats, but its vote share also touched 56.6 per cent, far more than the 46.4 per cent it managed in 2014.

Kejriwal wanted to join hands with the Congress to take on the BJP, but the parties failed to cobble together an alliance despite a concerted effort.

The AAP finished third and its vote share dropped to 18.1 per cent from 32.9 per cent in 2014. The Congress finished second in five seats and its vote share improved from 15.1 per cent in 2014 to 22.5 per cent.

An AAP leader, however, said, a weaker Congress may not favour the AAP. “If the Congress is totally cut off from the scene, then it may not help AAP. To cut anti-incumbency votes, a slightly stronger Congress helps us. So it will be best if Congress scales, but a little. In today’s scenario, however, Congress is totally absent from the scene.”

BJP wants stronger Congress to split AAP votes

The BJP, meanwhile, wants a stronger Congress to cut AAP votes.

According to a Delhi BJP leader, who didn’t want to be named, the party understands the difference between Lok Sabha and assembly elections.

The leader said that to defeat the AAP, it will be best for the BJP to have a stronger Congress cut the AAP votes.

“We got 55 per cent (vote share) in the Lok Sabha elections as voters were choosing the prime minister. This (Delhi) election is about choosing the chief minister,” added the leader.

Also read: The logic behind Lage Raho Kejriwal, Prashant Kishor’s slogan for the Aam Aadmi Party

‘BJP needs to break Kejriwal’s image’

The BJP is desperately trying to break the jinx of losing Delhi elections. For the last 21 years, the BJP has been out of power in the national capital.

A Lokniti-CSDS survey showed that Kejriwal still enjoys overwhelming popularity among Delhi voters.

A BJP leader said that without breaking Kejriwal’s image, it will be hard for the BJP to win the election. This is also one of the reasons behind the BJP coming out with a booklet highlighting the failure of the Kejriwal government to fulfil the promises it made during the previous elections.

Another issue for the BJP is that it lacks a chief ministerial face to counter Kejriwal. If the party declares Health Minister Harsh Vardhan as the CM candidate, then it might face opposition from other factions in the Delhi unit.

Vardhan was the BJP’s CM face in the 2013 assembly elections.

Also read: CM or not, Manoj Tiwari says BJP will contest and win Delhi polls under his leadership

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