AAP should learn from Janata Party experiment

AAP should learn from Janata Party experiment

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Thursday, 9 April 2015 AT 12:47 PM IST

    

The recent unprecedented  victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi state polls reminded me of the landslide victory of the then unborn Janata Party in the 1977 general elections. At that time, for the first time, the country's sitting prime minister Indira Gandhi was defeated and the Congress was routed in nine northern cow-belt states. I, then still a higher secondary school student and so non-voter, was an active participant of this political bloodless revolution (as naively we had then called it). I was one of the polling agents representing the Peasants and Workers Party, one of the constituents of the Janata  Party, in the counting of votes held at Satara. Congress candidates in Satara and Karad Lok Sabha constituencies were  Union Minister Yashwantrao Chavan and Pramila Chavan, mother of former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, respectively. As the counting of votes continued, at around 2 pm, we learnt that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated by Raj Narain in Rae Bareily constituency and our celebrations knew no bounds. 

In the 1977 polls, the Janata Party of the Jan Sangh, the Charan Singh-led Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD), the Morarji Desai-led  Organisation (Syndicate) Congress and the Socialist parties led by George Fernandes and Madhu Limaye had contested polls with the BLD's  Haldhar (farmer carrying a plough) poll symbol. After their poll victory, Morarji Desai was sworn in as prime minister. The Janata Party formally came into existence only a few months later when the major non-Congress parties were merged into the new  Janata party, now led by Chandra Sekhar.  The new government at the Center soon called for fresh polls in the nine northern states and Janata Party attained power in those states too. Supporters of  Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan, who had led the political campaign against Indira Gandhi had then dreamt of a Sampoorna Kranti (total revolution). Alas, their joy and aspirations too shattered within few months! 

The squabbling within the Janata Party led to the fall of the Morarji Desai government and another short-lived government of Charan Singh who earned the notoriety of being a prime minister who never faced Parliament. Later, within two and half years after she was defeated, Indira Gandhi returned to power with a majority, which she had never got in the previous polls.

Sketching a similar visual in the eyes of those who lived through this dream of total revolution, the AAP was recently elected to power in Delhi, winning 67 of the total 70 seats.  Soon after assuming the power, AAP  leaders – Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan - have been indulging in mud slinging, much to the annoyance of the party's supporters. The AAP leaders would do well in learning from history and provide a stable and efficient government for the next five years. The voters from all over the country have been watching their performance with high expectations. These people and also the Delhi voters who reposed their faith in AAP should not be left disappointed. 

AAP Ki Dilli and aftermath

The AAP victory has created a political history in the whole country. The pollsters were off the mark when all of them predicted just a comfortable majority to the Aap Aadmi Party, forecasting over 20 seats for the BJP and almost writing off the Congress. The voters in Delhi have set off an avalanche. If 2014 Lok Sabha polls experienced a Modi tsunami, there is no word to describe AAP's victory in 67 of the total 70 assembly seats.

The debate on what exactly led to the AAP avalanche, Waterloo of the BJP and decimation of the Congress in the national capital will continue for next few weeks. The army of the Sangh Parivar, scores of Union ministers and nearly 150 MPs in the Delhi poll arena were outsmarted by the thousands of the AAP volunteers drawn from all over the country who had been tirelessly working in bylanes, slums and other areas of the walled city since a few months prior to the polls.

The poll verdict of the Delheites will indeed have a lasting impact on the national politics. Kiran Bedi who was 'paradropped' as the BJP's chief ministerial nominee failed to improve the BJP's sagging poll fortune. But when the party could just win three seats of the 70 seats, the blame has been fully shifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

The Delhi poll debacle have left tremors in the BJP hierarchy as well as in the Congress camp. The second rung of party leaders in the BJP who had been totally sidelined for almost for a year in the process of decision making are now likely to be heard. The BJP was able to retain its core votes base but the AAP succeeded in attracting the votes shares of the Congress and other parties. This is a warning bells for all the traditional parties who have hitherto banked on castes, religion or region to win the votes. The AAP has indeed shattered all these barricades to win an unprecedented nearly 95 percent of the assembly seats. The Delhi success has now encouraged the AAP volunteers to undertake similar massive campaign in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities having polls in the next couple of years.

BJP's poll debacle has prompted its ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, to take pot shots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi,  indicating the strained relationship in the saffron alliance government. Indeed there was always a tug of war even within the Congress-NCP government but it had become a matter of public concern only at the fag end of the third term of the government when NCP supremo Sharad Pawar charged that the state government was affected by a 'paralysis' of indecisiveness. Fireworks have began in the BJP-Shiv Sena government soon after completion of just 100 days in power.

If things are not sorted out by both parties well in time, the state may face fresh polls. Arvind Kejriwal succeeded in winning majority of seats in the assembly in the second attempt. Both BJP and Shiv Sena are keen on having their own government with a majority support in the state assembly and either of them may be tempted to follow Kejriwal's example to opt for the gamble and adventurism of fresh polls. If they have no such intentions, the two parties should bury the hatchets and work to fulfill the promise of clean governance and development.  

Poll war in national capital, Delhi

Poll war in national capital, Delhi

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Tuesday, 27 January 2015 AT 09:10 PM IST

    

Delhi Assembly polls, AAP, Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi

The war for wresting power in Delhi state has finally began. In the earlier Delhi polls held last year, it was a triangular fight between the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP. Now it seems the AAP and the BJP are the main contestants and Congress has been relegated to the third position. What is most interesting is that two former comrades in the civic activists movement are now pitted each other. The BJP which had been attempting to put off the Delhi polls as long as possible has received a shot in the arm with Kiran Bedi joining its camp. The party will now have to contain the dissent among its senior leaders who fear they will have to play a second fiddle to the newcomer in the party.

I have had close association with Bedi when she was Deputy Superintendent of Police in Goa, looking after the traffic arrangement for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) retreat in Goa in 1983. Nearly 40 heads of Commonwealth states including Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Bob Hawke and others were to attend the retreat. As a reporter with the local daily 'The Navhind Times', I used to accompany her in a police Gypsy vehicle from Panaji to Fort Aquada for her rehearsals with she constantly instructing her subordinates on the walkie-talkie. That was the beginning of her career but that time too she was known as an upright and no-nonsense officer.

There has been indeed a strong reaction to Bedi's decision to join the BJP. Bedi was a forefront leader in the Anna Hazare Team and with her entry, BJP has dealt a heavy blow to the AAP. Bedi's past record as a dynamic IPS officer and her role in the Team Anna will be put to test in this political battle.

BJP's decision to declare her as the chief ministerial candidate has also exposed the party's lack of confidence in winning the prestigious polls with its own leaders.

The BJP and the Sangh Parivar will have to use all its strength and resources to do well in Delhi polls. Teams of civic activists from all parts of the nation have also been working for the AAP in Delhi much before the poll schedule was announced. It is a prestigious battle for both the camps.

It will be yet another test to check whether the Modi wave still exists. The previous year Delhi state polls were fought when there was an anti- incumbency wave against the 15-year-old Congress regime led by Sheila Dixit. Now it will be a fight between the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal with Bedi and BJP president Amit Shah leading BJP from the front. It will be one of the most interesting and bitterly fought contest in the national capital.

Now, all eyes on Delhi polls

Now, all eyes on Delhi polls

Sakal Times Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Saturday, 8 November 2014 AT 01:10 PM IST

    

Delhi state assembly, Delhi polls, Jammu and Kashmir, BJP, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Camil Parkhe, blog

Finally, elections to Delhi state assembly will be held soon. The state assembly  which was in suspended animation for the past over seven months has been dissolved, much to the chagrin of the BJP  which had been avoiding the fresh polls under some or the other pretext. Although the elections to the Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will be held prior to Delhi polls, the elections in the national capital are of more vital importance due to obvious reasons.

The three major political powers in Delhi- the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party- are already preparing for the state polls even before the declaration of the election schedule. It is clear that the poll campaign in this tiny state will be keenly watched by political observers and also people in the rest parts of the country.

Soon after formation of the Delhi state, the BJP had formed the first government  in the new state. But the party gave three chief ministers to the new state, Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma and Sushma Swaraj in a short period of 1993 to 1998. Swaraj who quit her Union minister's post to be the chief minister to lead her party's poll campaign lost the state elections, thanks to the high prices of onions in Delhi at that time.

Sheila Dixit of the Congress wrested the power in 1998 and retained it for a record 15 years. The 49-day regime of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following the hung assembly in December 2013 elections and subsequent political incidents are too fresh events to forget. The question now is which of the three main political players will emerge the winner in the forthcoming Delhi poll battle.

The hesitation of the BJP government at the Centre to hold fresh polls and thus end political uncertainty in the state – even after its impressive show of winning all six Lok Sabha seats in Delhi- was clear indication of the party's lack of confidence in winning the assembly polls.

On the other hand, the AAP which was humiliated in the parliamentary polls has been working overtime to do well in the state polls. The Congress has its organisational network which may help the party in wooing its traditional votes. The BJP will again have to harp on the Narendra Modi magic to wrest power in this politically most  important state. The warm-up to the Delhi elections has just began and it promises to offer an interesting poll battle.