A pre-poll survey by India Today-Cicero suggests Kejriwal is Delhi's first choice for the chief minister's job; the best Delhi has had; and leader of the party that is just three percent behind the BJP in the projected vote share.

There is something about Arvind Kejriwal.

A pre-poll survey by India Today-Cicero suggests Kejriwal is Delhi’s first choice for the chief minister’s job; the best Delhi has had; and leader of the party that is just three per cent behind the BJP in the projected vote share. Clearly, the bhakt’s favourite Humpty Dumpty hasn’t had a great fall.

This isn’t part of the expected script, ‘Bhagora’ baiters will complain. After the rout in the Lok Sabha polls, Kejriwal was expected to just keep running into the sunset. But, according to the survey, Kejriwal has found his ray of hope.

He is no phoenix of the mythological tales we have heard. Yet, he keeps rising from the ashes.

Why doesn't Kejriwal, as Auric Goldfinger had expected of a different man, just die a quiet political death? What is his electoral Bond-- shaken but not broken-- with Delhi?

There is no simple explanation, but here is a theory: Kejriwal is rising on the remains of the Congress. The Congress is dead; long live the K.

Not everybody in Delhi is a rightwinger; very few are eager for a ghar wapsi; there are those who get angry when called Haramzaadas, the liberals, the Godse-phobics, the Sanskrit-haters, the urban poor, the left of centre and, finally, those who believe that the PM is all talk. When polling booths open in Delhi, where will these people go-to Rahul Gandhi?

He was once the crown prince. Today Rahul is just a token leader, whose writ doesn't extend beyond the gates of his house, wherever it is. Sheila Dikshit, once as powerful and promising as Razia Sultan, has presided over the end of her own sultanate. The Congress is now oh-so-yesterday. For the non-bhakt, the anti-Modi voter, there is no option other than Kejriwal.

He is a viable, try-able option that would allow them to vote against Modi, and with a brand of politics that is a complete antithesis that of Modi. So, if you do not believe in the idea of Modi, you can try the idea of Kejriwal.

So, reason number one: Since Rahul is No Alternative (RINA), Kejriwal survives because of the TINA (There is no alternative) factor. As Yogendra Yadav pointed out on TV while discussing the survey, the more the Congress falls, the higher will Kejriwal rise.

The other reason is that Kejriwal was not dethroned by the people. He was not voted out, but walked out, and became a bhagora, an ideological victory that soon proved to be a blunder. But we Indians tend to forgive somebody who accepts his mistake and pleads for ghar wapsi.

The survey suggests that people were in fact happy with his performance as AK-49. The AAP government did exceptionally well according to more than 30 percent respondents. More than two-third of the respondents said they were happy with AK-49 until he shot himself in the foot. So, nostalgic voters may be more than willing to bring back the achche din of AAP.

Kejriwal's problem, like that of every other politician from north to south and west to east, is just one: Modi. If Kejriwal is still popular, so is Modi. The anti-Modi is hardly large enough to coast to victory.

In Delhi, there are lots of fence-sitters who can't decide who to vote for, split by the utopian ideal of Modi and Kejriwal's fence and straddling the boundary between AAP and BJP.

Kejriwal's fate will, ironically, be decided by bhagoras-voters who desert one of these camps.