If there is one unequivocal message that the mandate from Delhi sends across to the ‘pantheon’ of political parties in India, it is that equitable development, or even a semblance of it, gets votes. It is also a clear signal that people are no longer willing to support negative campaigning. Although the BJP, forced to eat a humble pie, can show an improvement in its standing today compared with the last assembly election in the national capital, the gains are of little consequence anyway. If anything, it shows that being in power at the Centre may have pitfalls.
The results of the Delhi Assembly polls were a foregone conclusion – that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was set to win the elections for a third term – after a sweep of 67 out of the total 70 seats in the state assembly polls in 2015. This time, the AAP has reached close to the earlier strength in terms of seats and made mincemeat of its Opposition. The BJP remained at a single digit while the Congress scored a Zero.
The situation on the ground was such that everything turned to give the AAP a third chance. The BJP, despite the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah in the direct campaign scene, seemed to be faltering from the very start. As a deadly dose, Kejriwal hurled the last challenge at it – to state who its CM nominee would be. Having tasted a bitter pill in the last assembly polls when the BJP projected former police officer Kiran Bedi as CM, this was probably an uncomfortable thing the saffron party was ready to handle this time. Naming a nominee for CM post meant he or she will have to have a stature equal to that of Kejriwal – one who kept the large army of underlings in his fold and won goodwill from all sides for the simple yet effusive way he ran a government for five years.
What also added to the massive win for the AAP is, obviously, the strategy adopted by Moslems and Dalits to back the party en bloc. This was unlike in the past scenarios when sections of these voters backed the Congress and another section the AAP in Delhi polls. A division of votes helped the BJP in the LS polls. This time, hugely upset over the Modi government’s steps like the NPR, NRC, CAA, substantial groundwork was done by activist groups within the communities to consolidate their strengths in each and every ward. The total rout of the Congress party, which generally relied on similar sectional votes to considerable levels, proves this. The Congress leaders themselves stated after the voting day on Saturday that they wanted the AAP to win so that the BJP could be kept away from power in the state. Apart from just minorities and the marginalised, the student community from across Delhi supposedly rose as one against the BJP for its brutal handlings of Jamia and JN University.
What Kejriwal did in Delhi is well-known. He worked for the ordinary people, and even went out of the way to make vote banks out of the poor – by liberal resort to extension of help to common people in the form of hugely subsidized water and electricity. He also made a big vote bank out of women through his free bus ride offer. He worked to strengthen the public education system and government health care, both being used mostly by ordinary masses. At the micro level, this was a big achievement. At the macro level, a capital city like Delhi requires leadership with more dynamism to push the engines of growth. Sadly, the position of the Chief Minister of Delhi is extremely limited in power. The Delhi Police is controlled by the Union Home Ministry and not by the State government. Finances, security and even transfers of bureaucrats are not with the state. This makes the Center very powerful in Delhi. For example, by announcing granting of legal status for all unauthorized slums and colonies just days before polling, the Central government did demonstrate its partisan political role whereby it also damaged the future scope of beautification and growth of the Capital city on a permanent basis. However, by somehow balancing pluses and minuses, it was still Advantage Arvind. He governed the city state for five years with a commitment to fight corruption, and he succeeded to an extent in keeping his head high in a scene filled with sharks and devils. In general, Delhiites appear to have accepted the successes of the AAP government in delivering better education and healthcare in the national capital region. They have also clearly thwarted the designs of social division.
Notably, the people of Delhi rejected both the principal national parties – the Congress and the BJP – and gave their stamp of approval repeatedly to a regional party. Barely nine months ago, the same Delhi voter had opted to vote for the BJP which had won all 7 Lok Sabha seats from that city state. The reason for this change of heart may not be difficult to comprehend.
It should be obvious now that Indians cannot be bound down with mere religious rhetorics any more. They are a clever lot who think and analyse in their guts. They had decisively thrown the corrupt and inefficient Congress to the dust bin with great hope. The hope was not for creating a polarized society, divided on religion, caste and such issues. It is not any leader or any political party that had built India in the last seven decades. From a dependent for food and backward nation, the people had pushed India to a point where it was on the anvil to transform into a global power. They expected the BJP to not hinder but be an accomplice in their efforts towards greater glory and opulence.
Although the Delhi election results do not mean the trashing of the BJP, it simply suggests the voter is dismayed. With hopes belied, the average Indian realizes that while giant economies like that of China and the US are on the back foot, India has wasted precious time, energy and massive opportunities in vague issues. It is time for all political parties to rethink on their strategies that would count in the aspirations of New India.