By D N Singh
When Anna Hazare led movement against corruption pulverized the power citadel of the Congress, Aam Admi Party made almost an apparition pitching Kejriwal as the nodal man. Since then the ascendency of AAP rose on the graph and the simultaneous decline of the Congress was set in motion.
Now will be a role reversal as AAP facing gradual erosion over one after other allegations, first Satyndra Jain and now Manish Sisodia in the tight nooses of the CBI, it may set the pace for the beleaguered Congress to rejuvenate?
However, at this time one ambitious and flamboyant Raghav Chaddha, Rajya Sabha member for AAP mouthed a few pegging words like “The CBI-ED pressure on the AAP proves that the name of the person who the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is scared of is Arvind Kejriwal. His name is not Rahul Gandhi. It is Arvind Kejriwal and not Rahul Gandhi who terrifies the BJP.” Quite in contrast, Priyanka Gandhi made a scathing attack as how the BJP is using the probe agencies as tools to harass the opposition through questioning by either the ED or the CBI, just to create an air of dismay in the opposition.
Even from the Congress quarters voices have been raised at the studious silence of AAP when other opposition leaders including the Congress were simply harassed. That was quite a barb now the AAP may find to digest. The AAP, with its wide presence in Delhi and Punjab, and a toehold in Gujarat and Goa, considers itself to be the primary opposition to the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre, and will leave no chance to attack the Congress — its biggest competition in the opposition space.
Congress distancing from AAP!
For long eight years the Congress has been on the visible decline and now seems desperate to join hands with any regardless of any ideology. In which the name of AAP seem markedly missing.
That is the predicament in which the BJP would try to bake some breads for the 2024 polls and may try its best to fritter the big faces in any party opposed to the BJP-led NDA.
The only consolation but without any tangible outcome in its favour, AAP indirectly enjoys the moral support of the Congress with top Supreme Court lawyer and a senior Congress leader, Abhsekh Manu Sanghvi stood as the defense lawyer for Sisodia.
But the moot issue is , will AAP is going to write its own Epitaph notes before 2024 and find relegated to the position that the Congress has been suffering from.
