Delhi’s iconic Ramlila Maidan was awash with creative banners and posters ahead of Aam Admi party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s swearing in as chief minister for the third consecutive time on Sunday.
Among the posters that drew attention was one that read: “Nayak 2 is Back Again”. It has a photograph of Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor the main lead in the film on the left and a smiling Arvind Kejriwal wearing Aam Aadmi Party’s cap on the right.
The poster references 2001 Hindi political thriller ‘Nayak’, in which Kapoor plays a reporter who becomes chief minister of Maharashtra for a day and strives to eliminate corruption. Eliminating graft has also been a major aim of the AAP that came into being on the back of a movement against corruption.
Kejriwal led the AAP to a stunning victory in the Delhi assembly elections winning 62 of the 70 seats as he campaigned on the strength of his government’s development and pro-people policies, sidestepping the BJP’s hyper nationalism campaign where it fielded Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah besides a battery of Union ministers and Hindutva posterboy and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
But the BJP’s high-voltage campaign backfired spectacularly as the AAP came close to replicating it 2015 show when it won 67 seats. The BJP which claimed it would win at least 48 seats and form the government, bit the dust although it marginally improved its tally, winning eight seats compared to the three it won in 2015. The Congress drew a blank for the second successive time.
Kejriwal’s old team of ministers including Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Imran Hussain and Rajendra Gautam are likely to take oath along with Kejriwal.
Sisodia said “there is nothing wrong” in repeating the same cabinet because the AAP won the elections on basis of its work.
