Modi's dictatorial rise in the BJP puts off the average Indian: Sandeep Dikshit

The disquiet in the BJP seems to have begun to have reverberations on the ground. And the Congress is rubbing its hands with glee. On the campaign trail, two-time Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit says the reactions he is getting from BJP-strongholds has surprised him. Conversations with residents during his padyatra through what he described as a ‘solid BJP belt’ (Krishna Nagar, BJP Delhi chief Harsh Vardhan’s Assembly seat), says Dikshit, reflected a general unease among people with the “dictatorial way in which he is emerging as a leader.” “People are asking whether it is the BJP or Modi who is fighting the election?” says Dikshit, suggesting that the BJP’s treatment, or rather mistreatment of its senior leaders, is leaving a bad taste and could cost the party votes. Attacking the BJP for its transformation from being a party that prided itself for having many able leaders to becoming a one-man show, Dikshit told Firstpost, “The internal fight within the BJP is hurting them.” Dikshit is up against the BJP’s Maheish Girri and AAP’s Rajmohan Gandhi in East Delhi in next month’s Lok Sabha polls. He is received with a rousing welcome, complete with the beating of the dhol, marigold garlands, showers of rose petals and loud cheers by party workers at Kotla village for what is going to be a four-hour padyatra through Trilokpuri, on Wednesday evening. As Dikshit makes his way through the narrow lanes of Kotla village followed by a large contingent of local party workers and cheered on by crowds looking down from balconies, it is evident he is on friendly territory. But with the devastating results of the 2013 Delhi elections still fresh in everyone’s mind, even in this pocket borough of the Congress, residents concede that that party faces a tough challenge in next month’s Lok Sabha election. (Read more about the battle for East Delhi here .) “This time, the Congress won’t come back to power. Yes, it is possible that people might vote for Sandeep Dikshit because he is known to people here and is popular. But, by and large, the public sentiment is not in favour of the Congress party,” says a businessman who runs a herbal cosmetics store in Kotla village. All too aware of the obituaries being written about Congress party, Dikshit with his 10-hour daily campaign schedules comprising a combination of padyatras and public meetings seems to be doing all he can to stop the bleeding. Firstpost caught up with Diskhit on his campaign trail to ask him about how he plans to counter the AAP wave and who he believes is his principal challenger. [caption id=“attachment_1452893” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Two-time Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit receives a rousing welcome from local party workers and residents on his padyatra in Kotla Village in Trilokpuri on Wednesday during his campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] On the challenge in East Delhi (In the 2013 assembly election, of the 10 assembly seats that fall under East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, AAP won 5, BJP 3 and Congress only 2) In the assembly election, we were behind the BJP by 33,000 votes and we were ahead of AAP by 16,000-17,000 votes. The AAP graph is going down. And now they don’t have much of a chance to make up for it. Even when the wave was there, we were ahead of them in vote-share. As far as the fight with BJP is concerned, on one hand we are re-gaining votes from AAP and second, the internal fight within the BJP is hurting them. This morning, I was campaigning in a BJP stronghold (Krishna Nagar) and I was surprised by people’s reaction. They are asking whether it is the BJP or Modi who is fighting the election. The dictatorial way in which he is emerging as a leader, the average Indian will not like this. This hope that there will be a wave in Modi’s name, I don’t think it will bear fruit. What does Modi sarkar mean? It is a projection of an individual and not a party. It is for the first time that this has happened in the BJP. There are no photos of any other leader or of founder-members or of the party president in the party posters. The average Indian will not like this kind of projection. It used to be a tradition of the BJP of always having photos of Atalji or Advaniji or Rajnath Singhji or Murli Manoharji. They would also be projected. If you remember the BJP had always used these words, “we’ll do carpet-bombing of our leaders.” These were their words. Where did all that go? On the Delhi assembly debacle and its impact It wasn’t such a surprise. We didn’t have to recalibrate our (Lok Sabha campaign) strategy too much. We knew we had lost the assembly election. AAP got an opportunity to form government and if they had run the government intelligently they could have won all seven seats in Lok Sabha. I was convinced of that and I was very worried. But they committed a series of follies. You can fool some people all the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time. I’m not saying they are good or bad. Their biggest problem is, they had a typical middle-class reaction that ‘everyone is corrupt, everyone is a thief.’ They said because they are honest all work will be done honestly. But work gets done by getting work done not by closing down projects. On the anti-Congress wave and the under-estimation of AAP Only promises can create such a wave. And that nobody can estimate. There is an anti-Congress feeling or there was. First of all, my feeling is that the anti-congress vote will go to the BJP because now you are electing not just an MP, you are electing someone who is relevant at the national level. Even the most biased opinion poll doesn’t give AAP more than 10 seats and the Congress below 100-150. At the local level, AAP is relevant. But in a Parliamentary election, why will anybody vote for them. On the risk of losing the Muslim vote to AAP (East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has a sizeable Muslim population, estimated at around 18-20 per cent) First of all, I am not worried about the Muslim vote. Secondly, why should they vote for AAP? AAP is only attacking the BJP on the development plank. The primary objection to the BJP is not its development plank but its communal plank. And Kejriwal has not said one word on 2002 riots. AAP basically has a development-corruption agenda. If they can sit with Baba Ramdev, Ravi Shankar and the RSS on the stage how do they have any commitment to secularism? AAP in terms of their communal outlook is no different from the BJP. Where were they when Muzaffarnagar riots happened? Their basic reaction is not secular, their basic reaction is political. On Kejriwal He has very good sense of how to be dramatic. He got a great advantage from the Anna movement. But by becoming extremely ambitious, he is strategizing wrong.