Arvind Kejriwal deserves credit for his undeterred resolve in whatever he believes in; ‘opportunism and power’ as his opposition shouts, ‘political’ as former friends whisper, ‘incorruptible’ as new friends boast, ‘purely democratic’ as he himself declares. Whatever it might be, it is certainly paying off at the moment. When Anna Hazare asked Kejriwal and his team not to use his name in their political endeavours, it seemed the movement would lose its sheen.

His recent agitations have been successful. One of them dented the first family’s reputation after his attack on the son-in-law of the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for his links with the corporate giant DLF and acquiring land on favourable terms. It resulted in a volley of cabinet ministers plunging into the son’s defence. A senior bureaucrat in the Haryana government was also transferred for probing into the Vadra-DLF deal.

The second scathing attack was on union law minister Salman Khurshid who was charged with siphoning off funds allocated for the disabled on the basis of forged signatures to his NGO. The minister warned Kejriwal of dire consequences if he attempted to stage protests in his constituency.

Media can make or break movements. Former supreme court judge justice Markandey Katju on a national television said “shut your camera covers for a month and these chaps will be lost forever”. This may hold some truth considering the unhindered media coverage of the movement but Kejriwal is here to stay and occupy not only the space of Congress but also the saffron party, BJP. His yet another attack on BJP president Nitin Gadkari for grabbing land in connivance with the NCP, one of BJP’s principal opposition parties in Maharashtra, has opened Kejriwal’s fronts on both sides.

His aim is Delhi state assembly elections in 2013 and though he seems to be populous and infallible, he will prove to be a major factor for the return of the Indian National Congress. He is currently on way of forming alliances and marking strategies for wooing various castes and traditional vote banks into his fold. This would be a long and tedious process which will not come easy as the political giants will fight for it with all teeth.

He will only be able to eat into the BJP’s anti-incumbency vote share. This would result in a split of votes and the return of the Sheila Dixit government. He may be lucky to have a handful of seats in the elections. The era of politics in the country also saw such shift when a number of political parties were formed in the last three decades, starting with Bahujan Samaj Party formed in 1984 now a national party, Samajwadi Party in 1992 now has majority in the largest state of the country and third largest party in the Lok Sabha, Janata Dal (United) and RJD are the most recent parties which have occupied a sizeable political space despite an uninspiring start.

Thus if Team Kejriwal’s consistency stays on he will definitely be a power to be reckoned with.