Why the Arvind Kejriwal effect is growing

The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal (centre), made an impressive debut in Delhi polls

In his first two weeks in office, the new broom sweeping through Indian politics seems to be proving the old rule that if everyone's attacking you, you must be doing something right.

Or to put it another way, the new Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is showing just how much the established political order of the Congress Party and the opposition BJP is running scared.

After his first attempt at an open public hearing this weekend went a little awry, much of the India media were lining up to write it off as a chaotic disaster - many with links to big parties.

It may be that his Aam Aadmi Party with its spartan broom symbol is still too new and small to have much hope in the 300 constituencies it says it will contest in this spring's general elections.

'Historic'

But after its shock triumph in the recent Delhi state elections, the bigger, older parties are no longer prepared to leave that to chance.

This same weekend, Congress party supporters stoned buses carrying workers from his Aam Aadmi party and pelted them with black ink as they took their campaign to one of the ruling Gandhi family bastions.

Last week, right-wing thugs smashed up the Aam Aadmi's party's headquarters; another meeting was disrupted on Monday.

Mr Kejriwal's decision to hold an open public hearing, or janata durbar, was always bound to be more of a spectacle than new government in operation.

With many there wanting just to be seen and heard, rather than having much expectation of pressing their complaint in person, it was soon clear the police would struggle.

Seated behind a low-key plastic picnic table, his trademark scarf wrapped round his head, the leader of the Common Man Party was almost flattened by all the common people hoping to at least to shake his hand.

Less than an hour later, he had to beat a retreat under police guard.

Mr Kejriwal himself has since apologised, saying he left because he feared it could have become a stampede - and has for the moment called off such big events But even so, it was far from the meltdown some reports suggested.