Delhi is gearing up to witness the first electoral clash of 2020 on Feb. 8, results to which will be declared on the 11th.

With this and a spate of related announcements – for the deployment of 90,000 policemen at 13,750 polling stations where 14,692,136 voters will cast their ballots, the Model Code of Elections has come into effect, and for the first time as many voters may have access to digital photo voters’ slips instead of the usual printed copies, and forecast lengths of queues at the polling booths with the aid of a specific artificial intelligence application, writes Priyanka Bhardwaj.

A three-cornered contest, the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be facing the might of the Lok Sabha election-champion, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the lesser Indian National Congress (INC) to the state legislature.

When Arvind Kejriwal first opened his political account in 2013, riding on the massive popularity of the anti-corruption movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare, his AAP had managed to win 28 seats, pushing the BJP and INC to 31 and 3 seats respectively.

But by 2015 AAP’s tally spread to 67 out of the total 70 seats, the remaining 3 going to the BJP and the INC drawing a blank.

Despite the paucity of resources that marks every fledgling party, it was the ingenuous strategy employed by the AAP, to undertake small, more intimate mohalla (colony) meetings and door-to-door campaigns that established it’s connect with a large number of voters.

Appearing upbeat this time again, Kejriwal has positioned his party-campaign on the merits of his governance, with the task of thrashing out the manifesto delegated to Atishi who had unsuccessfully fought against BJP’s Gautam Gambhir, a cricket icon, in the last Lok Sabha elections, Jasmine Shah and Dr Ajoy Kumar.

Foremost in AAP’s long list of administrative achievements are their healthcare initiatives, 450 mohalla clinics, fight against mosquito borne dengue disease, no hike in school fees, free bus rides to women, “Farishte Dilli Ke” scheme to reward and felicitate citizens who take accident victims to hospitals, cheaper power and free water connections, doubling of tax collections to Rs. 600 billion, and as the only state in the entire country to report a surplus after budgetary expenditures.

However, where it fails to impress are its inability to harness the alarmingly decreasing quality of air, polluted drinking water, inadequate and shoddy waste disposal system, constant bickering with the Lieutenant Governor that it concedes have hurdled implementation of multitude projects, failure on matters of security and safety, particularly with respect to seniors, children and women citizens, non-purchase of transport public buses, indiscriminate distribution of freebies and subsidies, usurping of credit for central initiative to regularize unauthorized colonies, and sudden rush to embark on policies only in the run up to February elections.

Delhi can be distinguished from the rest of the country in the urban nature of its challenges that have defined voters’ choice of representatives to the assembly, and perhaps the recent switch over of Kejriwal to a “non-confrontational mode,” with his refraining from lobbing personal attacks at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after the recent historical mandate to the BJP in Lok Sabha elections, and distancing himself from violence ridden campus protests, beyond two tweets to show a customary solidarity with the students, are indicative of his strategy to focus on local heft to guide his party to a surer assembly victory, while also adopting a subtle version of inclusive nationalism, as evident in the last days of December, when the Delhi government felicitated family members of ex-servicemen and those who were killed protecting the nation, and renamed Mukarba Chowk & Flyover as Shaheed Captain Vikram Batra Chowk, in honor of the Kargil war martyr, to counter BJP’s aggressive nationalism.

The paramount role of local over the national issues, and an admission of the lack of enough anti-incumbency against the reigning AAP, are reflected in the remodeling of the BJP campaigning style along the lines of AAP, with higher emphasis to be paid on door to door campaigns and smaller meetings of 50, 100, 150 to 200 individuals, instead of its trademark public rallies, huge public meetings, and hoisting of huge banners and posters.

Amit Shah, current Home Minister and chief strategist of the fund-rich BJP that is aiming for a comeback after a two-decade power hiatus and has faced a few electoral reverses in the recent assembly elections, has kick-started campaign from the neighborhood of Lajpat Nagar II where he addressed a small public gathering and exhorted his party workers to reach out to every home and every voter, to update them on the essentials of the newly legislated Citizenship Amendment Act and on BJP’s promises.

He also informed on the participation of big names such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an evergreen BJP star campaigner, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP Working President J.P. Nadda, and Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari to support the candidacy of prominent BJP leaders, Hardeep Singh Puri, Tarun Goel, Dr. Harshvardhan and Manoj Tiwari.

At this stage the saffron party has chosen not to name any candidate as the Chief Minister face of the party, a fact being lampooned by the AAP, to enjoy the leverage of the Modi brand that has had a far higher success rate, and to underpin this narrative the party cadre have been instructed to present each home with the photo of Modi and a flag of the party.

If the BJP looks keen on securing the ambivalence of the middle classes that are more likely to be disillusioned with any ruling dispensation, it may also be possible that this loss to the AAP could also translate into a gain for the INC that had won three straight terms in Delhi, prior to 2013, and is recently basking in its surprise electoral performances and successes in government formations in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, and is consolidating its Muslim vote-bank against the centre led CAA & NRC policies.

Simultaneously, what cannot be negated is the tattering state of the INC Delhi Chapter, after the demise of Sheila Dixit, and its inability to forge an alliance with the AAP which may drive voters towards the BJP, or even split anti-BJP votes in ways to impart an edge to the BJP, unless of course there is a repeat of the 2015 voting pattern.