Delhi Poll Result: Common-man’s party to form government
-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL
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Delhi has created history of a sort.
Reports suggest that the most Delhiites want Common-man’s (Aam Aadmi) party to assume power.
Under immense pressure from people of Delhi, the Common-man (Aam Aadmi) party has at long last decided to form their first ever government in Delhi state.
Thus, ending days of uncertainty, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has declared that the party is ready to form the government in Delhi, with crucial support from one of its two main enemies, the Congress. The party has also announced that Arvind Kejriwal, under whom the party won 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly, will be the chief minister.
Earlier, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sought the views of the people to decide whether or not to form a government in Delhi in the face of a split verdict. AAP founder leader Arvind Kejriwal said the public opinion would be sought until the weekend, and a final decision on government formation would be taken Dec 23.
Clearly, the public immensely pressured the AAP to assume power to serve the people with full dedication. There is a general feeling that Delhiites have rejected both the rich national parties Congress and BJP and want to see the new party Common-man’s Aam Aadmi (AAP) to govern them. People are deadly disillusioned with all national parties that ignore concerns of common people and promote the rich and mafias.
The AAP won 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly, and was invited to try form a government after the Bharatiya Janata Party, which finished with 31 seats, declined to do so as it lacked majority support. BJP somehow managed to win more seats than the AAP in Delhi but that party is scared of AAP so declined to stake claims for forming a government as requested by the Delhi Lt. Governor. .
The Congress party was routed in the Delhi elections, winning only eight seats. It offered outside support to the AAP. The Hindutva based BJP, the single largest party with 31 seats in the 70-member house, has declined to form a government. The AAP netted 28 seats and was invited by the Delhi Lt. Governor to form the ministry, but has sought time to reply.
The Congress, in a bid to slight the BJP, announced that its eight legislators would prop up the AAP. The AAP then said it would seek public views on whether or not it should take Congress support. The Congress gave its “best wishes” to the AAP and asked it to fulfill the promises it made to the voters. A miffed BJP denounced the AAP decision, terming it a “betrayal of the people”.
Yesterday , the Aam Aadmi Party said that the final announcement on whether it will form a government in Delhi would be made Monday after the party gets the opinion of Delhiites.
AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal told reporters here: “A lot of public meetings are going on Sunday, including four in my own constituency New Delhi. We will make the declaration Monday morning only after we get the opinion of the people, this is for the first time that such a thing is happening in India. Earlier, the common man’s role was limited to just voting but we are going out to them and making them feel empowered,” he added. “We are the talk of the town. This is true democracy.”
Has the AAP thus begun with breaking one of its very first promises, which was to not form an alliance with either the BJP or Congress? Absolutely no! The party leaders did not rush to form the government when the Lt. Governor invited them to form the government after the BJP said no to him.
AAP is only assuring the people of Delhi their willingness to obey them to govern the state and fulfill all poll promises by combating corruption. . The overwhelming public response — via SMS, IVRS, emails, and at public meetings — is in favor of taking support from the Congress to form a government in Delhi.
Sisodia, an AAP spokesman and a senior figure in the AAP who is tipped to become a minister in the new government said: “We fought the elections under his leadership and it is the opinion of all the 28 MLAs that he (Kejriwal) will be chief minister of Delhi”. “There are some rumors that someone else might become the chief minister, and Kejriwal might play a different role. But the party has decided that he will be the chief minister,” Sisodia added that of the hundreds of thousands who responded to the AAP referendum, around 157,000 people in Delhi, or 74 percent of those who took part in the exercise in the capital, wanted the party to take power. Besides soliciting responses on the social media and through SMS, the AAP also held some 280 public meetings across Delhi. In 257 of them, the majority voted for an AAP government, he said.
The weekend just gone by alone saw 272 videographed public meetings where the people were asked if the Congress’ help should be taken. According to party sources, an overwhelming majority, almost 80-90 per cent, of the people said AAP should form the government. The party has got responses from over 6.5 lakh people through SMS, interactive voice response (IVR), Facebook and the AAP web site, she said. “We have held public meetings in all the wards. The promises made by Arvind were read out to the public and they were then asked to raise their hands if they wanted AAP to form the government by taking support of the Congress. Almost everywhere, barring a few places, people were in favor of AAP forming a minority government. However, we will be able to make an announcement only on Monday after going through all the video recordings,” an AAP spokesperson said on 22 December. .
Arvind Kejriwal, the former civil servant who resigned his job to work for the common people’s genuine causes, led AAP to a shock victory of sorts, has already said his one-year-old party would fulfill its strong manifesto, declaring some of the things in it can be implemented within hours of forming the government.
After five days of a referendum when people were asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether AAP should take power, Kejriwal announced that an overwhelming majority in the capital had given their thumbs up. Kejriwal said that there are around 1.19 crore voters and we have collectively received around 10- 12 lakh responses, which in a way give an indication of the view of the electors.”Majority of the people wanted us to form the government, and now I am going to meet the Lt. Governor to inform him that AAP is ready to form the government in Delhi,” Kejriwal said.
Arvind Kejriwal said: We will request Lt Governor Jung to see if swearing-in can be done at Jantar Mantar, the venue of Hazare led peaceful struggle for anti-corruption Lokpal Bill to be passed in the parliament. As the party’s campaign to elicit a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from people in the capital on government formation entered its final phase, the AAP said that most voters favored an AAP government. “Majority of the feedback we have received is ‘yes’,” spokesperson Ashwathi Muralidharan told IANS..
Kejriwal rebuffed allegations that AAP was hesitant to form government as it was not sure whether it would be able to fulfill the promises made in its election manifesto. “We will deliver whatever we assured in our manifesto. The manifesto was prepared after wide consultations and a lot of thought went into it. Moreover, the people of Delhi are expecting much more from us and we will perform. A lot of time has been lost in the process to form government. If we do form government, the date to pass the Lokpal bill will have to be shifted by around a week. But we will definitely pass it,” said Kejriwal.
Before the Delhi assembly elections, Kejriwal had claimed that his party, if voted to power, would pass the Jan Lokpal Bill at Ramlila Maidan, the venue of some strong rallies and fasts in support of the anti-graft legislation, here Dec 29.
Observation
Although Congress feels sigh of relief as BJP is kept out of power, it still want sot settle score with AAP that unseated most powerful party of India in Delhi and playing negative role in bring the BJP to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Anna Hazare and Kejriwal cut plenty of votes from Congress vote bank which fell into BJP vote bank.
Common man Party is still unwilling to get support of both Congress and BJP, for, they would use it to suit their agenda, while, and Congress party may withdraw support at a crucial juncture.
A honest, decent and caring governments the need of the hour not only in Delhi but entire nation where uncertainly of the rightful existence for common people depends much on a much needed corruption free and price controlling system.
Delhiites are sure the new Common-man Party would realize the rightful dreams of Delhi state. On the strength of its performance depends the formation of AAP at national level to gear up for the next year’s parliamentary polls. Already Congress and BJP as well as other national parties are deeply worried about the prowess of Aam Aadmi.
The politicians and mafias enjoy power and the illegally made wealth, and now jointly fear the rise of Common Man in Delhi.
د. عبد راف
–BY DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL has been an educationist, Columnist-Commentator on world affairs Expert on Mideast Affairs, Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.) Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Former university Teacher; Editor:INTERNATIONAL OPINION; FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES; Author of books;website: http://abdulruff.wordpress.com/ mail: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com/Phone: 91-8129081217—(Account: No 62310377429 – CIF No: 78215311481- State Bank of Hyderabad, India)
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