As Swati Maliwal row spins out of AAP control, how BJP has adjusted its Delhi poll messaging

With the controversy around thealleged assault on Swati Maliwal at the residence of Arvind Kejriwal refusing to let up, the BJP seems to have got an easy handle to tackle the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Lok Sabha campaign just as it saw an upswing following release of the Delhi Chief Minister on interim bail earlier this month.

The AAP’s main poll focus has been women, a case in point being the welfare scheme, announced in March, under which eligible women will receive a monthly allowance of Rs. 1,000. But now the BJP is utilising the alleged assault on Maliwal, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP, to portray its top leadership, including Kejriwal, as responsible — first through “silence”, acceptance, and then a “direct attack” on Maliwal — for “denigration” and “assault” of their own women colleagues.

The BJP’s campaign strategy to counter the INDIA bloc in Delhi has been to target the AAP more than the Congress because the Kejriwal-led party is seen as a more formidable opposition in the national capital, which votes on May 25, than the grand old party. The BJP has also kept a concerted focus on the Kejriwal government’s alleged corruption, the BJP-led Centre’s “contribution” to the “development of Delhi”, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “his strong and stable leadership”.

The BJP initially countered the AAP’s welfare pitch with its central welfare schemes “overseen by the PM himself” and in a signal to women voters brought up how the now-withdrawn excise policy had “plunged their husbands and sons into alcoholism”. But a swift shift was effected immediately after Maliwal’s allegations surfaced. The BJP then began mentioning it in its campaign at the city’s JJ (jhuggi-jhopri) clusters and slums, which have traditionally preferred the