Please bear with the length of the post!!! :) Has the Aam Aadmi Party performed badly per se in these elections? I dont think so! Maybe our expectations from them were way off the mark. Honestly I dont see this as a loss for Aam Aadmi Party at all because: 1. In comparison to BJP which got only 2 seats in General Elections in 1984 (4 years after their formation in 1980), AAP has got 4 seats in LS just after 1.5 years since their formation. 2. AAP has managed to get over 2% (1.1 Crore votes) of the total votes in the country just after 1.5 years of their formation! They have increased their reach by almost five times as compared to 22 Lakh votes in Delhi Assembly elections in just five months. Thats a staggering number against all odds especially when they are not directly supported by any political/industrial/social outfit. 3. For people who say that its a sweeping victory for BJP in Delhi, thats true and all credit goes to them. Im not trying to take it away. But the fact is that AAP didnt perform that badly either since AAP got 32.9 % of votes in Delhi as compared to their 30% voteshare in 2013 Delhi Assembly Elections. So perhaps the nationwide claim that the entire Delhi was pissed off at Arvind Kejriwal resigning, might not be actually true. They actually got more votes than they did earlier! 4. As far as Arvind Kejriwals contest from Varanasi is considered, heres what I have to say. Pick one seat from where Modi is most likely to win from in UP, out of Varanasi, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra, Aonla, Pilibhit, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Bansgaon and Azamgarh. These are the constituencies in Uttar Pradesh where BJP was already in power. The choice is obvious for very obvious reasons! Infact, I think AK actually performed great given the fact that that was his first Lok Sabha election. AK was contesting against a candidate who has a wave (read tsunami) named after him and is contesting from the most suited constituency for himself. Even then AK managed to reduce the winning margin to 371,000 votes as compared to the winning margin of 570,000 for Narendra Modi in Vadodara. Moreover, I think we should not consider the victory or loss of AAP in terms of the number of seats won by them. I guess the parameter to look forward to is whether our countrys political system/political leaders are improving or not, which I certainly feel is undergoing a tremendous change since the formation of AAP. Try having a look at the candidates fielded by parties, try seeing the change in the candidates. Even for Delhi election BJP changed their CM candidate from Vijay Goel to Harsh Vardhan and I am sure that they will change it to an even better candidate for the next assembly elections in Delhi. Recently an MLA called me up for a favour and I had the guts to tell him, Why should I do this for you? is only because of the confidence instilled in me by AAP that our MLAs are Aam Aadmi. This confidence, is what makes me pro Aam Aadmi Party! AAP has brought people with such diverse backgrounds into politics. Although I feel sad by the fact that some of the people who were doing wonderful things in their lives left their cosy jobs, so that they could contribute towards the growth and progress of the country in whatever way they could; were not even appreciated by the society at large. It was as though people got biased and didnt even care to check the credibility of the candidates. Even after all these facts if we feel that AAP has lost these elections then it clearly shows that how much influenced our decisions are. Its a great start and if we talk about seats only, the BJP took 18 years to win their first national elections. I believe that one year old AAP has just taken its first baby steps. AAP can be a very major force at the national level to reckon with pretty soon. Till then their role is to be vigilant and provide a good opposition so that we dont fall prey to corruption again. Hats off to AAP and AK!!
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 20:46:44 +0000
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