After MCD drubbing, AAP acting more khaas than aam

Now with the BJP winning and the exit polls proving correct, major protests can be expected from AAP.

The leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and the chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, had warned that he would launch a movement if his party is defeated in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections as predicted by exit polls.

Now with the BJP winning and the exit polls proving correct, major protests can be expected from AAP.

Kejriwal has blamed everyone and everything in trying to explain AAP's, at worst dissmal and at best below expectations, performances in various elections since its victory in Delhi assembly elections in 2015 where it won a record 67 out of 70 seats.

From blaming the Electronic Voting Machines to voters being paid, the party and its leaders have done everything but accept that they might have not been able to follow through on the promises they made and expectations that the public have of them.

Such a behaviour from the party, which was supposed to stand for change, is quite similar to the political parties that it used blame of political arrogance and being out of touch with ground realities.

A look at a few of the excuses and allegations that the AAP has made and why they might not hold much truth, end up pointing towards its change of behaviour from AAM to KHAAS.

The EVM controversy

The party has been crying foul over the alleged tampering of the voting machines ever since the assembly elections results came out earlier this year. The exemplary performance of the BJP in almost all of these states took most other parties by suprise and this led to accusations from AAP along with other parties such as BSP, SP and the Congress.

The Election Commission of India has repeatedly denied such allegations and refuted claims of votes of other parties being registered to the BJP. The commission has even decided to throw an open challenge in the coming weeks to prove its point. The exercise is to involve political party representatives, people who have raised doubts, and people who know technology among others.

Such claims from opposition parties seem odd especially coming at a time when the SAD-BJP alliance performed poorly in Punjab this year after it was routed by the Congress and the AAP itself beat the BJP to come in second in the state.

Going by his statements, Kejriwal seems confident about his allegations, but so does the ECI. One thing is clear, the day of the challenge someone is going to end up with egg on their faces. And the chances of it being the ECI seem dim given that such a challenge was given out in following similar allegation after the 2009 elections.

The Mainstream media bias though the argument of favourable treatment of the BJP and PM Modi by the main stream media might be difficult to counter. The accusations of favouritism by a party that took birth out of a popular movement led by Anna Hazare, which had unparalleled backing and coverage from the media when pitted against the corruption stained UPA government is difficult to digest.

By raking this point up, the party is also guilty of not understanding the ground support that the BJP and PM Modi has. A mistake that is also similar to the national parties made, especially the Congress, of dismissing the AAP and its initial movement. And the outcome of such an error is judgement is there for all to see.

Internal fighting and throwing out its top leadership while the BJP brought out its big guns for campaigning for the MCD elections, which included the prime minister, BJP chief Amit shah, union ministers like Smriti Irani among others, the AAP has been struggling to keep it's top leadership together since coming to power in Delhi.

Leaders are not only being alienated but also thrown out. Senior leaders such as former union law minister Shanti Bhushan, reputed lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and noted psephologist Yogendra Yadav were removed from the party. Yadav even went out to head Swaraj India, a new party that has fielded candidates in the MCD elections.

From being a party where like-minded people came together to bring about a change in Indian politics the party has gone the way of most others where one person has become the party and any body seen as a threat to their control is not tolerated.

This does not bode well for a party that was supposed to take people along and lead with a mandate and not through dictum.

Finally, whatever may be the election results, the one advantage that the AAP government has in Delhi is that given its formidable majority in the state it still has time to go back and rectify the mistakes that have led them to such a condition.

And this would not be its first such course correction. AAP had to change its course following what was considered its first major mistake in politics when it gave up power after the first elections it fought in Delhi in 2013, claiming that the Congress party which had supported it to form the government was not letting it function properly.

The ground level anger against such a step was successfully countered and turned into votes for itself by Kejriwal going all the over the state admitting that the party had made a mistake by withdrawing from power.

This should be a lesson that it needs to learn fast as the the opposition to it is not the Congress with its weakening base but a Modi-led BJP that is growing in power from state to state. It is time for the AAP to go back to its roots.

OneIndia News