The gist of what is widely reported on the eve of voting "D Day" the Aam Aadmi story : Arvind Kejriwal, born into a humble family in a small town of Haryana, Kejriwal was a political novice until a year ago. But he has consciously opted for a strategy to project himself as the clean and honest face reaching out to voters at the grassroots level and making them stakeholders at every stage.
Kejriwal’s party is testing electoral waters for the first time in Delhi, where the Congress party has been in power for the last three terms and to ensure that he “levels the fight” for his party cadre and supporters, he decided to fight from New Delhi constituency, pitting himself against a formidable political opponent—India’s longest-serving woman chief minister, Sheila Dikshit.
Kejriwal said, “When we announced that I will fight against Sheila Dikshit, we were not very confident about whether we will win or not because she has been the chief minister for 15 years.A lot of people said that the New Delhi constituency is full of government servants and that we were against corruption. But our experience has been quite the opposite. The response has been simply overwhelming.”
Kejriwal shot to fame when he became the brain behind the anti-corruption movement led by veteran activist Anna Hazare. But they parted ways when Kejriwal decided to join politics in September last year. Old friends and acquaintances, including lawyer Prashant Bhushan and right to information activist Manish Sisodia, joined Kejriwal and AAP was born.
However, the party’s rise in Delhi has not been easy. It has faced sharp criticism and reactions from the established political class. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, for instance, maintains that the AAP is “not even a contender”, and the BJP thinks the debutante party is not a serious competitor.
To add to it, a sting released by a company called Media Sarkar on 21 November, less than two weeks before the polling date, claimed that some AAP leaders and candidates had agreed to accept funds without showing them in their official accounts. The party, which has taken a strong position favouring transparency in its funding and uploads the details of all donations on its website, had a tough time countering the allegation, which arose out of a sting operation and the sour episode with the erstwhile mentor Anna, for the misuse of donation fund collected under IAC movement.
Though in Delhi elections, BJP has the edge, and why that is so is visible from the story of thousands of "Bilkis" among the people, coming out in open. 72-year-old Bilkis has been a loyal Congress supporter, but that will change on 4 December, she says, when Delhi votes in state assembly polls in which the Congress is seeking a fourth successive term to rule the city-state.
“This time, literally for a change, I will vote for the main opposition,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says the Bilkis, who makes a living going door-to-door selling clothes tailored by her sons.The shift in Bilkis’s loyalty is a worrying sign for the Congress; her extended family has 17 votes. More worrying for the Congress is the fact that Bilkis’s ire is not targeted at three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit or the local unit of the party. Instead, it is directed at the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that’s in power at the centre.
Bilkis, made some crucial observation, when she said,“It is one thing to say that a party’s policies are pro-poor and it is another thing that a government becomes so corrupt that it quietly drills a hole in the pockets of those who cannot afford anything, even without them knowing it,” .
As reported, "The anger of young voters got channelised through these protests. In the line of fire was UPA, which in its second term has also been embroiled in a series of corruption scandals. The Congress government in Delhi too was attacked for its inefficiency in dealing with fears around women’s safety."
"Interestingly, the disenchantment with the Congress has not automatically translated into an advantage for BJP, although the naming of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the party’s prime ministerial candidate has made the party a popular choice for young voters".
"One such voter is Diksha Jain, a 21-year-old student said, "that she doesn’t go out after dark because of safety concerns. I like Narendra Modi, his speeches are very inspirational. There is no one in the Congress I can think of who equals him in his public persona,” adding that she would vote for BJP because the “regime change” in the 2014 general elections should begin from Delhi.
Kejriwal’s personality cult is largely intact, according to the survey. AAP is popular among the youngs , but so is Modi's BJP. Yogendra Yadav of AAP said “People below 35 years of age have been very receptive of our messages,but the party is struggling with older voters............ it is yet to turn the 50 plus age group in its favour. ”
One impartial prediction by the time tested betting stalwart Tawari gives this, "Predictions for 2013": Who is winning in Rajasthan? The BJP is likely to win 114-116 seats out of 200. The Congress will be down to 62-64 and others will win 22-23. Who is ahead in Madhya Pradesh? The BJP will manage to win 122—124 seats. Jyotiraditya Scindia’s efforts will help Congress touch 78-80. What will happen to Arvind Kejriwal? His party would be No 3 with 8-10 seats. The BJP will form the next government with 32-34 seats.
INDIA HONEST concludes ,even if the prediction goes true,it will be win win for AAP supporters and Delhi people , as the self made "crusader against corruption" tag holder Arvind Kejriwal, will do justice to his energy, sitting in opposition benches, and keeping a watchful eye on the administration of Delhi, while learning some important lesson of politics for future.