The BJP’s apparent “vindictiveness” towards the Aam Aadmi Party, as reflected in the arrest of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, may be a strategy to help boost the relatively rookie party’s image and thus split Opposition votes, some in the ruling establishment believe.

They suggested the “game plan” represented the latest “Gujarat model”, inspired by the BJP’s record-breaking victory in the recent Assembly elections in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

The BJP won 156 of the 182 seats, thanks also to the AAP cornering a large chunk of the anti-incumbent vote and crippling the ruling party’s principal challenger, the Congress.

Post-poll analysis has suggested that the AAP’s presence helped the BJP bag some 50 seats, most of them Congress strongholds.

Now, by arresting the AAP’s second-most important leader over an alleged excise scam, the BJP has given the party a chance to dominate the optics and project itself as a potent challenger to India’s ruling dispensation, BJP sources suggested.

They said the BJP would now scale up its attack on the AAP and help it secure national attention ahead of key state polls this year and the general election in 2024.

AAP workers block a road in Jaipur on Monday in protest against the arrest of Manish Sisodia. PTI

“The timing of the arrest is significant,” a BJP veteran, now sidelined, said.

“Just when the Congress and Rahul Gandhi were receiving national attention because of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and were attacking the government over the Adani controversy, the AAP has appeared on the scene to steal some of the spotlight.”

The next AAP leader in the government’s crosshairs is Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, a BJP source said.

Among the principal Opposition parties, the AAP and Telangana’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi are known for their aversion to not just the BJP but also the Congress.

The AAP has systematically focused its expansion plans on states where the Congress has been in power or occupied the principal Opposition space.

The policy has led to the AAP wresting Punjab from the Congress, and the BJP winning a landslide in Gujarat.

Many key states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are due for elections this year. In all of them, the AAP is striving to secure a slice of the Opposition space.

BJP insiders said that splitting the Opposition vote was a crucial component also of their party’s strategy for next year’s general election, where it wanted to improve on its 2019 victory margin.

“The Gujarat model will form the template for all these elections. In Gujarat, we increased our vote share while the Congress vote got divided,” a BJP leader said.

While BJP sources acknowledge that the AAP lacks much organisational strength outside Delhi or Punjab, many of them believe the party can split the Opposition vote substantially in many states.

Some BJP leaders, however, said the party’s onslaught on the AAP leadership reflected a strategy focused solely on Delhi, and had the objective of weakening and ousting the AAP from power.

“Politically, the drive against the AAP should be viewed only with respect to Delhi. We have to snatch Delhi from the AAP in the 2025 polls,” a Delhi BJP leader said, arguing that Sisodia’s arrest would destabilise the Kejriwal government.