Mission Sibal: Why AAP's Ashutosh feels he can conquer Chandni Chowk

New Delhi: Unshackled from having to run a state government and raring to go, the Aam Admi Party  (AAP) is all set for its next big political challenge. A day after Arvind Kejriwal resigned as the Chief Minister of Delhi along with his cabinet, the party released its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. [caption id=“attachment_1395617” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kapil Sibal. Reuters image[/caption] The most high profile target in AAP’s first is Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who has been a fixture on AAP’s aggressive campaign against corruption. Sibal’s Chandni Chowk seat is one of the two Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi for which AAP has announced its candidates in the first list. The other is West Delhi, held by Congress MP Mahabal Mishra. (Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats, all of which the Congress won in the 2009 Lok Sabha election) The 2013 Delhi assembly elections, which nearly wiped out the ruling Congress party, paints a troubling scenario for the Law Minister. In the ten assembly seats that fall under the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress took a heavy beating in the December elections, holding on to only two of the six assembly seats that it had won in 2008. AAP, on the other hand, had a dream run, winning four. The BJP won three. Sibal, whose name figures in Kejriwal’s controversial ‘India’s Most Corrupt List’ released last month, is an important political rival that AAP will direct the full force of its political campaign to defeat. Taking on the two-time Member of Parliament from Chandni Chowk is former TV journalist Ashutosh who joined AAP in January after quitting as Managing Editor of Hindi news channel IBN7. Asked what the reasons were for pitting him against Sibal, Ashutosh says, “In issuing the first list, the basic thought was lets clean this politics of corruption from criminalisation and communalism. These are the main tenets of our politics and our campaign…If you remember, it was Sibal who had made the statement about ‘zero loss’ in connection with 2g spectrum scam. Here was somebody who was blatantly justifying corruption when the whole world new about it. “Secondly, during the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement, it was Sibal who had ridiculed the mass agitation. As a politician, as representative of the people, he should have been sensitive to their feelings, instead he was disrespectful of the common man and his sentiments. It is in this context that I was asked to give him a tough fight and see to it that he doesn’t enter Parliament.” Does he see Sibal as a tough opponent or someone he can defeat? After all, Sibal is a two-time MP who won the Chandni Chowk seat by a decisive margin in 2009. He defeated his rival, BJP’s Vijender Gupta, by over 2 lakh votes. AAP, says Ashutosh, with its performance in the Delhi Assembly elections (in which it won 27 of the 70 assembly seats), has busted the myth “that politics is only muscle and money power and the polarisation of votes.” “If you look at the Chandni Chowk election, I don’t have the kind of resources to match Sibal or for that matter the BJP candidate. But I know that the people who had given their full support during the 2013 Delhi Assembly election they have taken it upon themselves to fight elections on our behalf. And given Sibal’s record I won’t be surprised if he loses badly because it was not me who was ridiculed but the common the people of Chandni Chowk who have been ridiculed and mocked by Sibal.” Asked about his strategy in trying to displace the Congress leader from Parliament, Ashutosh says, “The strategy is to run an honest campaign and to listen to people.” West Delhi is the second Lok Sabha constituency in Delhi that figures in AAP’s first list. Congress’s performance in the assembly segments that fall under the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency was even more dismal than its performance in Chandni Chowk’s assembly segments. The party was completely wiped out from West Delhi Assembly segments, losing all the six assembly seats it had won in 2008. AAP, on the other hand, won four. Speaking about AAP’s electoral prospects in Chandni Chowk and West Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, psephologist and Director at the Centre for Study of Developing Studies (CSDS), says, “It is very clear that at this moment in Delhi, AAP is the first choice of the voters. It was clear in Delhi Assembly election. I don’t think things have changed dramatically since the state elections. I would say, AAP has a very good chance in both the seats - West Delhi and Chandni Chowk. Even in other five seats, AAP candidates would be seen as much stronger candidates than those of other parties. And this is not because the candidates are very good but because the party’s popularity is very high at this moment…. AAP certainly has a huge edge over the Congress. Even without looking at the candidates, one can say the contest is going to be between AAP and the BJP.” Comparing Sibal’s electoral prospects to Mishra’s, Kumar says, “If you were to ask who was on a stickier wicket - Sibal or Mishra, certainly Sibal. One reason is that AAP has campaigned vigorously against Sibal. Their attack on Sibal is more vehement compared to that against Mishra, who has remained non-controversial. Between the two, Mishra is in a slightly safer position.”