The Aam Admi Party, popularly known as AAP has made a smashing debut in politics. It has won a creditable 28 out of 70 seats in Delhi assembly elections. In the process both the Congress and BJP have been denied an opportunity to come to power. In fact BJP could win only 31 seats and Congress a pitiful 8 seats. The Chief Minister of Delhi had to suffer defeat at the hands of Arvind Kejariwal leader of AAP party after ruling for 15 years or three terms.
Many reasons are being put forward for this performance of AAP party. It is clear that the voters are agreeable to consider a viable alternative to the two national parties. The electorate are rightly in search of a party which can deliver in a style unlike that of the existing parties.
The Congress is a more than 120 years old party. It fought for India's freedom and after 1947 has been in power for nearly 80% of the time. Whatever India has become today is largely due to its policies and ideologies. It is a party which has incessantly promoted secularism, socialism and programmes for the poor. Of late it has come out with programmes which are aimed at the poor but involve huge subsidies from the budget for their implementation. Post 1991-92 it has diluted its socialistic stance and promoted free economy and promoted globalisation of Indian economy in a big way.
The BJP is seen as a rightist part. Many of its programmes and policies are opposed to those followed by Congress and that is a reason for its existence. It is seen by many as a non secular party in the sense that it is seen as favouring a particular religion. This may not necessarily be true but this is an ambiguous image it has successfully created. It is seen as party of traders and industrialists and is seen as promoting capitalism and is low on social parameters.
The AAP party is only an year old. It is passionate about making India corruption free. For this, it almost seems, it has a single point programme of getting the Jan Lokpal Bill passed. It emerged out of the agitation led by Anna Hazare which was hugely successful and attracted youth in a big way. The party has made many promises which seem to be very difficult to implement like reducing electricity bills by nearly 50% and so son. The party has not held power so how it will behave is unknown.
The Congress is seen as a dynasty driven party which is seen as appeasing minorities and its economic policies have failed to prevent price rise and inflation. It is seen as building a vote bloc through its pro poor policies by promising them freebies at a very high cost to the exchequer. It is seen as a party bereft of leadership and also soft towards corruption. Major scams have come into the open in the past few years causing a severe dent in its image.
The BJP is seen as an aggressive party guided by the RSS. It also is seen as playing vote bank politics by taking up the side of the majority against perceived discrimination both in the past and present. However it also tries to appear non communal at the same time. It has positioned itself as an alternative to Congress's mishandling especialy of the economy and failure to prevent scams etc. As a major opposition party it does not have to perform but can make huge promises to be fulfilled when it comes to power. It has a few states like Gujarat, MP and now Rajasthan to show as its prize victories. It has also suffered due to corruption in Karnataka.
The AAP party has started by projecting itself as a party of idealists who are out to stamp out corruption from India. For them corruption by existing political parties is responsible for the sorry state India finds itself in. They project themselves not as different but as part of the masses. Their major leaders are from the average middle class and this has given them a mass appeal. They have tried to act in a transparent way and their stopping asking for donation after having received the target of Rs 20 crores is praiseworthy.
The Congress has in the PM a very learned economist of international recognition. It is therefore ironical that under his stewardship the country should be suffering from high inflation and high prices, both of which affect the poor very much. However the dual nature of its leadership model where the Congress President has power and the PM has responsibility was successful in UPA I when GDP was going up but in UPA II when GDP has gone down it is seen as an ineffective model of leadership.
The BJP has tried to project itself as a non dynastic party where decisions are taken in a democratic manner. It also tries to project the fact that anyone can reach its top irrespective of their background. However it is also well known that RSS gets its decisions implemented within BJP under the cover of democratic decision making. It has had only one PM in Vajpayeeji and they tirelessly project him as the model PM the country ever had.
The AAP party has piggy ridden on the back of the Anna movement and in fact encashed the entire goodwill to itself. Its tries to downplay any power trappings. It has so far successfully projected itself as a collective leadership driven party constantly stressing transparency and honesty. It is seen as a clean party worth being given a chance.
The Congress has in an undeclared manner tried to give the impression that if they come to power in 2014 Rahul will be the PM. He has so far kept himself away from joining the government and thus is widely seen as lacking experience. He also has not had much success in the state level elections and is thus not seen as a effective leader. Congress is thus in a dilemma as far as projecting a leader is concerned. Will it be from the dynasty or from outside is going to be a very important decision the party will have to take in the near future.
The BJP has decided upon its PM candidate who is now very aggressively campaigning across the country. He is working very hard to ensure that he becomes the PM in 2014. He faces no opposition within BJP having anointed himself as its nominee much before the elections in mid 2014. His track record in Gujarat in all spheres is available for the masses to judge him. His ideology is also well known. Will all the NDA allies flock around him is still not clear.
The face of AAP is Arvind Kejariwal. He is a well educated person, an engineer from IIT, and is very simple in his life. However he has successfully shown himself to be an effective leader and has enhanced his reputation by defeating Sheila Dikshit in Delhi by a good margin. For only a year old party to emerge as a creditable second rank party is a great achievement. Lot of credit for this should go to Kejariwal and his band of his close associates.
So how is the voter going to make a decision. In Delhi it has resulted in a hung assembly. AAP is not there outside Delhi. However having tasted success in Delhi it can surely be expected to travel far and wide within the country. How much success it will get is going to be a million dollar question. India is far bigger than Delhi. So is it for BJP's PM candidate also. India is far bigger than Gujarat. But for the undeclared candidate of Congress, will India respond, is also a huge question the answer to which is not clear.
Thus India is up for a very challenging elections in 2014. In many states the regional outfits like SP, BSP. AIADMK, TMC, DMK etc are going to offer stiff competition. It is not going to be easy for the voter to make a decision or is it going to be very easy only the final results in 2014 will tell.