Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal came to Tamil Nadu’s aid in the final weekend before the April 23 election, spending two days campaigning for the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance and warning voters in the starkest terms of what an NDA victory would mean for the welfare architecture the Stalin government has built over five years.
Kejriwal addressed a public meeting at the Egmore constituency in Chennai on April 20, sharing the stage with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin an image of national INDIA bloc solidarity as the campaign entered its closing hours. At the end of his campaign visit, he spoke directly to reporters with a message calibrated for Tamil Nadu voters who might be weighing their options in a five-cornered contest.
“Last year in Delhi, people voted for the BJP, and now they got fed up with the BJP government. All the good work we have done in education, health, infrastructure, roads, electricity and water has been undone by the BJP,” he said. “So, by mistake, if people vote for the BJP or NDA or AIADMK, then all the good work of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in the last five years will be undone in no time.”
The use of his own political fate the AAP’s loss of Delhi in 2025 and the subsequent reversal of its flagship programmes as a cautionary tale for Tamil Nadu was Kejriwal’s most effective rhetorical tool. Voters who remember the Mohalla Clinic model, the AAP school makeovers, and the free electricity and water schemes in Delhi and who have watched those programmes being rolled back since the BJP’s return to power could apply that template directly to Tamil Nadu’s own popular schemes: the Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai women’s entitlement payments, the Illaatharasi coupon scheme, and the state’s long-standing welfare commitments.
He was equally blunt in his characterisation of the NDA alliance itself, echoing a line that has become central to the DMK’s campaign message. “The NDA is not the AIADMK and the BJP; it is only the BJP. The AIADMK is completely in the clutches of the BJP,” he said, drawing a parallel with Bihar, where regional ally Nitish Kumar’s role was progressively reduced after aligning with the national party. The warning was directed at AIADMK-leaning voters who might still believe Edappadi K. Palaniswami represents an independent political force capable of governing Tamil Nadu on Tamil Nadu’s terms.
Kejriwal also addressed the delimitation bill’s defeat in Parliament, framing the opposition’s victory as having “saved democracy” from an “assault.” He attacked the BJP on corruption, pointing to dynastic beneficiaries in the Union Cabinet’s orbit. And he praised Stalin personally both for his governance and for his consistent support to AAP and the INDIA bloc during national crises. “Whenever there is an assault on federalism and democracy, Stalin’s voice has been strong,” he said.
Kejriwal’s visit came two days after Rahul Gandhi’s Thuraiyur rally, completing a late-campaign sweep of INDIA bloc faces through Tamil Nadu. The DMK’s own campaign had been primarily run on state-centric issues welfare delivery, delimitation, Dravidian identity, and the “Tamil Nadu vs Delhi” frame but the final weekend brought in national figures who could contextualise the Tamil Nadu contest as part of a larger battle over India’s federal and democratic architecture.
–Samuthiran
