Aam
Aadmi Party
As soon as the date for the Assembly elections in the
National Capital approached, people made up their mind to choose a party with a
difference instead of already existing ones, i.e. the Indian National Congress
and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The debutant AAP emerged as such a strong
contender that the Congress which had held power for the last 15 years watched
listlessly. The so-called mighty leader of the hitherto ruling party, Congress
felt almost voiceless when the AAP wrested 28 seats in the 70-member-strong
Assembly from them. They had so far only thought of the BJP gaining an edge
over the Congress due to anti-incumbency factor. It became all the more
humiliating for them later when the decimated Congress had to extend outside
support to the AAP unconditionally to keep the single largest party, the BJP +
with 32 seats, from forming a government.
The “nobody” of Indian politics, the street fighter Mr.
Arvind Kejriwal showed the high and the mighty that people’s will can be put to
good use , if the situation demands. Hardly anybody except his followers had
thought that the unassuming bespectacled, five-foot-four-inch-high man, with
clothes hanging loose on his body, will dethrone the empress of Delhi, Ms.
Sheila Dikshit, defeating her by a huge margin of over 25,000 votes. His cap
bearing the trademark “Main hoon aam aadmi” sentence has become more powerful
than a cannon after he stormed into power, albeit with the support of the
vanquished. Though sceptics doubt the longevity of his party in power, people
at large are quite confident that he is going to complete a full term because
of his urge to translate his promises into reality. In the AAP’s “ Manifesto”
he had promised to provide everyone with a metered connection with 700 liters
of water a day, and he did it just within 48 hours (24 hours of which comprised
his absence due to severe cold and fever and the next day as Sunday) after
swearing in as the Chief Minister of Delhi. The second major promise related to
the lowering of electricity charge to 50 percent if the connection-holder
sticks to the limit of consuming 400 units a month was also implemented a day
later. His working style has mesmerised the
public while stunned his adversaries.
Mr. Kejriwal established the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012 in
the month of November, just one year shy of the Delhi Assembly elections. Now,
everybody agrees that the AAP’s performance has been way beyond general
expectations. When Mrs. Kejriwal said on December 31, 2013 that he and his men
do not know politics and they were “Aam Aadmi”, everybody was taken aback. For
the time being we must think that everything is quite normal for the AAP
government. The Congress which has pledged outside support or the minority AAP
government had maintained that it will go on extending its support to the AAP
government, if it keeps caring for the welfare of people as it has promised.
