EXACTLY a year after he had resigned as Delhi chief minister, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal will be taking oath as the CM again on February 14 at Ramlila Maidan.”Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as the Delhi Chief Minister on February 14 at Ramlila Maidan,” AAP leader Ashutosh said after the party’s landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly polls.
After AAP had thrown a surprise by uprooting Congress out of power in 2013 Assembly elections as a debutant party, Kejriwal had taken oath as Delhi’s seventh chief minister on December 28. However, after serving the government for 49 days, he had resigned on February 14 last year after his push for the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill was blocked in the state Assembly by BJP and Congress.
This time, it was a crushing defeat for the BJP heavyweights including chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi. The BJP’s “trump card”, who was anointed as the party’s face just weeks ahead of the polls, lost from Krishna Nagar, considered to be a “safe” seat. Bedi lost to AAP’s SK Bagga. Senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, who had won from West Delhi’s Janakpuri constituency for a record five times, lost to AAP’s Rajesh Rishi. Ram Vir Singh Bidhuri, former Delhi NCP president who was contesting from Badarpur area, lost to AAP’s Narayan Dutt Sharma by a record margin of 47,583 votes.
The verdict is not unexpected as there has been an overall trend in India for going against the current administration. The masses have also been listening and the victories both by Modi and Kejriwal indicate that there is a general placed on them by the people as both had wanted ‘hassle free’ constituencies as a gift from the voting public.
There was also no substitute for organisational resilience. Just as Modi had won the nation by galvanising the party into action, so had Kejriwal brought back AAP from the brink of defeat when last year he walked out of the government and 96 percent of Aam Aadmi candidates had lost their deposits.
In both cases one man rejuvenated the entire party — to the advantage of both the party and themselves, when it seemed that pulling of the impossible was a far cry. Both had also ceaselessly courted all vote banks — not relying on one particular class or caste or religion for their vote — and in this both were richly rewarded. Indeed the future of Indian politics has been shown and it is the casting of the multi ethnic vote where people only want candidate who will deliver — the days where one voted for one’s caste are over in India — for good, it seems.
