Battle for Delhi: How Anti-CAA protests likely to play 'spoilsport' for three parties

New Delhi, Jan 17: Its been more than 21 years that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been trying to get back to power albeit unsuccessfully.

With elections due in Delhi, BJP is under a lot of pressure and would be fighting the upcoming polls on both local and national issues.

Going by the pamphlet being distributed by the party, it mentions the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019, Ram Mandir, removal of Article 370 and Triple Talaq as historical decisions taken by the party.

It can be recalled that in 2013, BJP which was riding on still-building Narendra Modi wave, came closest to form a government, but however fell short of majority mark and it chose to claim high moral ground by not staking claim to form government, which political debutant Arvind Kejriwal formed with outside support of the Congress.

Now, even after five years, the BJP still banks on the Modi wave and the AAP on Kejriwal's positive agenda of governance.

Now that the anti-CAA protests have erupted before the assembly polls, it has become another challenge for the BJP and AAP in Delhi election.

When the BJP government scored a political point by getting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill passed smoothly, it had not anticipated what would follow.

The protests which were initially confined to the north-eastern States when the dubious connection between the CAA and the NRC began to unfold. But the game plan fell apart as protests spilled from one state to the another, with widespread participation from all communities. The protesters against the CAA and the NRC ensured that the issue did not remain one that concerned the minority communities alone.

AAP has been careful to not lose its support among any of the communities. While the latest Police action and alleged inaction in several universities in the national capital have helped building perception that the Modi-Shah leadership of the BJP is insensitive towards sentiments and concerns of aam aadmi.

The Congress, however, smells an opportunity for a comeback in the protests. It believes that with the AAP leadership staying away, it should try hard and woo the Muslims back, though it is finding the going tough to select consensus candidates.

The Muslims account for 13 per cent of the Delhi population. As many as five of the 70 Assembly seats are considered 'Muslim seats'. Though there appears to be a silence among community opinion leaders, it is understood that they will resort to tactical voting in the Delhi Assembly election.