AAPocalypse in Delhi: How political parties are losing brand loyalty

It must feel good to be Arvind Kejriwal. To get 67 seats of a total of 70 seats in the Delhi assembly a year after he quit as the city state's chief minister is not just great political theatre, but history. In the process, Kejriwal has felled a few kings, and blown many myths. The kings include Narendra Modi and other stalwarts of the opposition.

But the myths that the victory of AAP has deconstructed seem to me more exciting than the rout of the great personalities. The foremost of these is that traditional structure and operational tactics of political parties are no longer relevant today. A recent survey in the capital said nearly 60 per cent of Delhi voters are poor or lower middle class, drawing an income of less than Rs 13,500 per month. The bulk of them seem to have voted for Kejriwal in what can be described only as a three-wheeler revolution. In other words, Kejriwal has galvanised – as did Modi during the parliamentary elections – voters and effected a disruption. It is relevant to ask if AAP's low cost model of "partying" can be applied across India.

Despite the fact that the BJP had a charismatic leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading a well oiled campaign against the fledgling AAP and despite the fact that Kejriwal was pitted against the formal organisational strengths of traditional parties like the BJP and the Congress, AAP was able to make a triumphant entry into the archway of voters' hearts by door to door canvassing and by holding jan sabhas. In short, Kejriwal ran an extremely personalised campaign. He gave the impression that he was earnest and aware of his past mistakes of immaturity. Modi on the other hand, though always a powerful communicator, affected a certain grandiose air which the recent incident of the designer suit exemplified. As for the Congress, which scored nothing in the polls, this is about the right time to disperse itself.

Pundits will now say that the BJP's choice of Kiran Bedi was wrong. They will say she repelled votes, that the vested interests in the BJP resisted the choice and did not greatly cooperate. This may well be true. But these do not diminish Kejriwal's achievement. The margin of victory leaves nothing for doubt. This is his hour of glory.

And the hour of glory for Indian democracy. That a people are so acute in their political reading and in the exercise of their voting options must come as a revelation to those who were cynical of the electorate and its naivete. In the seven odd months that the BJP has been in power, the perception seems to be that the party has created a distance between it and the people who voted it to power.

Clearly, we are in times when political parties no longer can enjoy brand loyalty. No one is likely to know it better than comeback kid Kejriwal. Those 67 seats he won are only as good as this morning's roses. Tomorrow they will wilt, and new buds must bloom. Politics demands, like a garden, daily tending. Indian democracy has taken root.