Millennium Post follows the AAP leader around on his campaign trail in around 15 villages in the region and catches him in the snatches between his interactions with the curious prospective voters. Excerpts.
Do you think the resignation of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi has adversely affected AAP’s image?
I think it’s fair to say that there has been a differential reaction among the upper end of those who consume reality largely through media. In some cases, there has been a loss of confidence. It adversely affected us because the media’s aggression against us was so overwhelming. But for those who got to experience the government personally and for those on the lower end of the spectrum, the reaction was different. Among them, there was a sense of regret, sense of loss. They think why did the government go so early, why did it not do a little more for us. But that regret is not hostile and that vote will come back to us.
So, you feel the AAP has recovered from the loss caused by the resignation of Kejriwal?
We began with huge gains after Delhi elections and in this instance among the most voluble class we suffered losses. But among the less voluble but more numerous classes, we did not. In fact, among the poorest we gained sympathy. So, our net standing is little higher today when it comes to assembly elections.
Why is AAP so critical of media? After all, it received huge media coverage during Delhi elections.
No, that’s simply not correct. We got such negative and hostile media. There were two moments of media honeymoon with us. One was Anna movement, the second was post-Delhi election. Before Delhi elections, we went through hell. We experienced some of the most unfair criticism from the media. We got some attention when we began our exposes. But the moment we began our exposes against the Ambanis, that was the end of our media honeymoon. After that, it’s only fair to say that we went to six months of media blackout. Most of these instructions are coming from the very top. We know how Narendra Modi controls so many news channels. Everyone knows about it. But the trouble is whoever says it becomes the culprit.
AAP only talks about ending corruption. Why is it so?
It’s a complete misunderstanding that we have only been talking about ending corruption. Whenever we speak about anything other than corruption the media doesn’t cover it and then the media says you don’t talk about other things. This is a strange paradox. We have spoken about ecology, communalism, homosexuality. No one covers it and then they blame us.
AAP’s detractors say it’s a local phenomenon. Do you think it will make an impact in national polls, in terms of numbers?
Well, we already have. Numbers are not the only thing in politics. Congress has more number of MLAs in Chhattisgarh than we have in Delhi. They did better than we did but we made an impact, not just in Delhi but in Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan. The entry of a force of a virtue makes a difference to everyone. And that’s what we are. We have made an impact which is much bigger than its capacity.
AAP consistently maintained that it will not field any of its existing MLAs for Lok Sabha election. But it retracted from its stand: first Rakhi Birla and now Arvind Kejriwal himself?
We did not want to. That was not our first preference in the case of Northwest constituency. We had to remove our first candidate and then we moved our best possible candidate. In case of Arvind Kejriwal, the point is that he is our national leader and we are contesting this election under his leadership. So obviously we would like him to contest at the national level and it is not against the rules.
How many seats are you hoping to win in the election?
I am not looking at any numbers. I had to step in to prevent infanticide. I had to do something which I did not want to do and I had to put all my reputation at stake to save this child (AAP) who was being murdered.
Do you think the resignation of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi has adversely affected AAP’s image?
I think it’s fair to say that there has been a differential reaction among the upper end of those who consume reality largely through media. In some cases, there has been a loss of confidence. It adversely affected us because the media’s aggression against us was so overwhelming. But for those who got to experience the government personally and for those on the lower end of the spectrum, the reaction was different. Among them, there was a sense of regret, sense of loss. They think why did the government go so early, why did it not do a little more for us. But that regret is not hostile and that vote will come back to us.
So, you feel the AAP has recovered from the loss caused by the resignation of Kejriwal?
We began with huge gains after Delhi elections and in this instance among the most voluble class we suffered losses. But among the less voluble but more numerous classes, we did not. In fact, among the poorest we gained sympathy. So, our net standing is little higher today when it comes to assembly elections.
Why is AAP so critical of media? After all, it received huge media coverage during Delhi elections.
No, that’s simply not correct. We got such negative and hostile media. There were two moments of media honeymoon with us. One was Anna movement, the second was post-Delhi election. Before Delhi elections, we went through hell. We experienced some of the most unfair criticism from the media. We got some attention when we began our exposes. But the moment we began our exposes against the Ambanis, that was the end of our media honeymoon. After that, it’s only fair to say that we went to six months of media blackout. Most of these instructions are coming from the very top. We know how Narendra Modi controls so many news channels. Everyone knows about it. But the trouble is whoever says it becomes the culprit.
AAP only talks about ending corruption. Why is it so?
It’s a complete misunderstanding that we have only been talking about ending corruption. Whenever we speak about anything other than corruption the media doesn’t cover it and then the media says you don’t talk about other things. This is a strange paradox. We have spoken about ecology, communalism, homosexuality. No one covers it and then they blame us.
AAP’s detractors say it’s a local phenomenon. Do you think it will make an impact in national polls, in terms of numbers?
Well, we already have. Numbers are not the only thing in politics. Congress has more number of MLAs in Chhattisgarh than we have in Delhi. They did better than we did but we made an impact, not just in Delhi but in Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan. The entry of a force of a virtue makes a difference to everyone. And that’s what we are. We have made an impact which is much bigger than its capacity.
AAP consistently maintained that it will not field any of its existing MLAs for Lok Sabha election. But it retracted from its stand: first Rakhi Birla and now Arvind Kejriwal himself?
We did not want to. That was not our first preference in the case of Northwest constituency. We had to remove our first candidate and then we moved our best possible candidate. In case of Arvind Kejriwal, the point is that he is our national leader and we are contesting this election under his leadership. So obviously we would like him to contest at the national level and it is not against the rules.
How many seats are you hoping to win in the election?
I am not looking at any numbers. I had to step in to prevent infanticide. I had to do something which I did not want to do and I had to put all my reputation at stake to save this child (AAP) who was being murdered.