[Unlike India’s
traditional parties, whose vast financial resources allow them to support and
house party workers, Mr. Nagar and the three students had traveled at their own
expense in an effort to bolster Mr. Kejriwal’s chances in the constituency of
Varanasi, where Mr. Modi remains the front-runner.]
By
Vaibhav Vats
News and analysis on
the world’s largest election.
The three students –
Tej Singh Chauhan, 23, Prashant Reddy, 21, and Khushboo Sinha, 22 – had arrived
from the western state of Maharashtra, while Mr. Nagar had traveled from Noida,
a suburb bordering Delhi, where he lived.
Unlike India’s
traditional parties, whose vast financial resources allow them to support and
house party workers, Mr. Nagar and the three students had traveled at their own
expense in an effort to bolster Mr. Kejriwal’s chances in the constituency of
Varanasi, where Mr. Modi remains the front-runner.
On Thursday morning,
like thousands of volunteers, they reported at Mr. Kejriwal’s campaign
headquarters, a modest house in the neighborhood of Shivaji Nagar. Here Mr. Nagar
was grouped with the three students and told to campaign for Mr. Kejriwal in
Lanka, a neighborhood bordering the city’s prestigious Banaras Hindu
University.
Before leaving, the
volunteer group collected campaign material from the party office. Mr. Reddy
was handed two large brooms, which he was required to wave high above his head
from time to time. (The broom is the Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral symbol.)
Mr. Chauhan carried a
transparent plastic bag. It contained nearly 300 white caps, which have become
widely identified with the party’s supporters; these were to be distributed
while campaigning. Ms. Sinha carried several dozen copies of the party’s
mouthpiece, a six-page newspaper called “Aap Ki Kranti,” which translates as
“Your Revolution.”
Dwarfed in financial
firepower by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has put up large posters of Mr.
Modi all over Varanasi, the Aam Aadmi Party has mobilized its network of
volunteers nationwide to mount a challenge in the most old-fashioned of ways:
by canvassing on foot and spreading their message by one-on-one interactions
with voters.
Mr. Nagar began the
door-to-door canvassing by leading the volunteer group to a tea stall in Lanka.
Mr. Nagar spoke to Anil Kumar Pandey, 48, a local resident, who was sipping tea
at the stall. Mr. Pandey turned out to be a fervent supporter of Mr. Modi. “Mr.
Kejriwal has been fighting against corruption for all these years,” Mr. Pandey
said. “Has corruption decreased?”
Several other
supporters of Mr. Modi surrounded Mr. Nagar with arguments of their own, and
momentarily Mr. Nagar seemed a man under siege. Charges and countercharges
flew, and the conversation steadily grew more heated.
Mr. Reddy, his fellow
volunteer, rescued Mr. Nagar from the melee. “Let’s not waste our time with
people we cannot convert,” Mr. Reddy told Mr. Nagar.
The volunteer group
had little luck elsewhere on the main avenue of Lanka, a commercial hub
populated by shopkeepers who remain among the staunchest supporters of the
Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr. Nagar dictated a
change of direction: “Let’s leave the main avenue and go into the small lanes.”
The volunteer group
briefly spent some time distributing caps to passing auto-rickshaw drivers at a
busy crossing, and then wove through the city’s lanes, calling on houses and
engaging bystanders they encountered on the way.
It was a searing, hot
afternoon, yet the volunteer group relentlessly marched on, halting only to buy
a bottle of water or an aerated drink. After several hours of canvassing, two
broad trends emerged: Mr. Nagar and his team were making most headway with
undecided voters, and those towards the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.
Rahul Pandey, 21, a
student at Kashi Vidyapeeth, said he was a big fan of Mr. Kejriwal, but had
become dismayed after he resigned as Delhi’s chief minister. “If he couldn’t
run Delhi for even two months, how will he run India?”
Mr. Nagar engaged Mr.
Pandey in a long discussion. Mr. Nagar conceded mistakes had been made, but the
intentions of the Aam Aadmi Party and Mr. Kejriwal remained clean. “Kejriwal is
an honest man,” he said. “We have only just started. You have given so many
chances to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. You can give us one
more chance at least.”
Some doubts lingered
in his mind, Mr. Pandey said, but he would give Mr. Kejriwal another thought.
“That is all I want,”
Mr. Nagar smiled. “Think some more, and make your own decision.”
Mr. Nagar and his team
had to expend less energy on those at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.
A rickshaw puller
stopped in front of the volunteer group to demand the party’s white caps for
himself and his family.
Mr. Nagar offered a
party cap to Raju, 35, a vegetable vendor, who instead pulled out a cap from
his pocket. “Don’t worry,” Mr. Raju said. “I am with you.”
Some of the most
strident supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party come from the upper and
dominant castes, and those below them have the most to fear from a revival of
upper-caste domination. Along with the Muslims, who have rallied behind Mr. Kejriwal, the
support of lower-caste groups, who usually vote for the Samajwadi Party and the
Bahujan Samaj Party, is critical if Mr. Kejriwal is to mount a formidable
challenge to Mr. Modi.
Yet, even as Mr. Nagar
and his team campaigned vigorously, they pleaded an inability to judge whether
their results were bearing fruit. As the campaign entered its final days, and
the stakes grew higher, Mr. Nagar and his team increasingly felt they were
operating in a climate of aggression and intrigue, accentuated by frequent
clashes between workers of the two parties in the previous weeks.
Now it seemed newer
tactics were being employed to gain the upper hand. A gentleman, not known to
any of the volunteer group, joined them toward the end of their canvassing. The
gentleman claimed he was supporting Mr. Kejriwal and indicated his willingness
to work with them.
However, as they
campaigned, Mr. Nagar felt the gentleman often undermined his arguments and
spoke against the party and Mr. Kejriwal.
“I don’t think he’s a
real supporter,” Mr. Nagar told me. Mr. Nagar thought he was a Bharatiya Janata
Party supporter who had been sent to sabotage their efforts.
A few minutes later,
Mr. Nagar sternly told the gentleman to leave them alone.
Some time before this
incident, Mr. Nagar had encountered a bystander wearing a Bharatiya Janata
Party scarf around his neck. Mr. Nagar went to converse with him.
“Don’t worry, I am
with Mr. Kejriwal,” the man told Mr. Nagar. “Some B.J.P. supporters asked me to
wear this, and I didn’t want to upset them.”
