Words are flowing and why not.
After all, it is the biggest electoral exercise in the world. And the Pundits
(electoral) form the fourth pillar of this exercise along with the other
constituents of the process - the
voters, the administrative machinery conducting the poll and the candidates.
And like all the ‘talking point’
candidates, Arvind Kejriwal is getting enough of the eyeballs. In fact, it can
be said, he is efficiently adding to the flow of words on political and
electoral analysis of the country’s political situation in his direction.
But with practicing incessant
verbal bravados, like Mr. Kejriwal has been doing, there is a clear and present
threat of putting the foot in the mouth. And Mr. Kejriwal is no exception. In
fact, he is doing it big time.
In the league of doing so, he
claimed he would fight Narendra Modi from any seat the BJP’s prime-ministerial
candidate opted for. And there he was trapped.
Though his candidature from Varanasi is yet to be
declared officially by his party, Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party cannot
afford the risk of withdrawing the ‘proclamation’ after talking so big, like
Kejriwal will win against Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime-ministerial candidate,
by a margin of over one lakh votes.
The reality is the day Narendra
Modi decided to contest from Varanasi ,
the result was decided. When it comes to the Lok Sabha polls, Varanasi has been a BJP seat in the last two
decades except aberrations like Congress win in 2004. But that was because of a
BJP candidate who was not even a rubber stamp MP.
Anyway, given the stature of
Narendra Modi as a polarising pro-Hindutva figure in a temple town that is also
the religious capital of Hinduism and India , Narendra Modi’s victory is
already sealed, irrespective of comments, claims and strategies of political
opponents.
And there would be many Kejriwal
detractors feeling good about it but one person would be happy with a feeling
of ‘having scores settled’ about this development. And he is Arvind Kejriwal’s
very own Kumar Vishwas, one of the founding members of AAP, who has been in
news for many things including his increasing differences with AAP.
Reports said (and say) that Mr.
Vishwas was not comfortable with the idea of contesting from Amethi, a Nehru-Gandhi
family stronghold, a Congress safe-seat and Rahul Gandhi’s parliamentary
constituency. Even strong political candidates with a good record to claim
would not think of contesting against Rahul Gandhi because it’s sure loss. And
for someone like Vishwas, fighting his first electoral battle, it is clear a
political suicide, where he is staring at a loss that can come with forfeiture
of deposit.
But Kumar Vishwas had to bite the
bullet, unwillingly or sulking, it didn’t matter. After all, Mr. Kejriwal is
always right and he cannot take a ‘no’.
But, now that Mr. Kejriwal is
trapped in his vocal bravery and is forced to bite the bullet of contesting
against Narendra Modi from Varanasi that is going to make him bite the dust on
May 16 when the results of the Varanasi parliamentary constituency will be
declared voting for which is to be held on May 12, in the last phase of the
General Elections of India (GE 2014).
It is indeed a sweet revenge for
Mr. Vishwas and its sweetness increases for him given the fact that it owes its
genesis in Mr. Kejriwal only.
Losing against Modi from a
Gujarat seat could have given Mr. Kejriwal space to manipulate words to
practice his vocal bravery but that Varanasi
is sans that advantage.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
