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Table of contents
Historic win: AAP winning 67 seats is the mandate of all

mandate
It is our victory: Aam aadmi celebrates AAP landslide in Delhi elections
Delhi election result: Its a victory for truth, says Kejriwal after landslide win
Amazing stats from Delhi polls: 55 AAP MLAs won with more than 50%
vote share
Zero MLAs with serious criminal charges: Delhis new assembly is the cleanest
in India
Pundits got it wrong: Post-poll survey shows how AAP engineered its shocking
win
#AAPSweep to #AAPKiDilli: After historic win, AAP hashtags take Twitter by
storm
Who was least wrong? All the Delhi exit poll predictions completely miss the
mark
Mufflerman is now Godzilla: Arvind Kejriwals 54% victory is baap of all
mandates
Business-friendly Kejriwal? What made baniyas choose AAP over BJP
Election mystery: How did Delhi exit polls completely miss the AAP tsunami?
Landslide victory in Delhi: Heres why AAPs humility after victory is touching
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07
08
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14
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28
30
32
What AAPs victory means for BJP and Congress

Congress rout in Delhi: Will Rahul Gandhi own responsibility now?
Yogendra Yadav is right, after AAP win, other states will write off PM Modi at
their peril
Delhi defeat means 2015 has to be Modis year of big reforms. Its now or never
Delhi poll results: AAPs landslide victory show how media misread Modi wave
Stop giving gyaan, we arent idiots: Aam aadmis royal snub to BJP in Delhi polls
Modi defeated Modi in Delhi polls: He cannot avoid blame for BJPs rout
Five mistakes of Kiran Bedis life: Why BJP was routed in Delhi
Beware a Congress-mukt Bharat: AAP is not the BJP counter that India needs
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40
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47
49
AAP wins but it wont be an easy ride

AAP sweeps Delhi by its feet, but BJP and Modi wont make life easy for Kejriwal
Why Arvind Kejriwal has the right to be very scared of Delhi election results
Delusion posing as reality: AAPs biggest challenge is to deliver on its manifesto
Aaptard wars: What Kejriwals supporters can learn from Modi and his bhakts
Dear AAP: Landslide Delhi election victory does not a national party make
Ready, set, slow: Can AAP avoid the pitfalls that come with absolute power?
AAP clearly wants to go national, but it must prove itself in Delhi first
Careful what you ask for: Kejriwals full Delhi statehood demand could backfire
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70
Copyright 2012 Firstpost
The Twitter verdict

Delhi results: Three charts to show how the election played out on Twitter
Yahan ke hum Sikandar to Yeh kya hua: Songs for AAP, BJP and Cong after
Delhi results
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and other top jokes inspired by the
Delhi polls
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and other top jokes inspired by the
Delhi polls
Cooler than Michelle Obama, meet Delhis truly modern, aam aurat first lady
Sunita Kejriwal
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Historic win: AAP winning 67 seats

is the mandate of all mandate
It is our victory: Aam aadmi celebrates
AAP landslide in Delhi elections

Debobrat Ghose, February 10, 2015
ew Delhi: In the year the creator of the

ubiquitous yet speechless common
man, RK Laxman, died, the real common man has found his voice through the common mans party. The historic win of the Aam
Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly Election
2015 with a verdict that will ensure it will never
have to abandon the seat of power, proves that
the way the common man voted in this country
so far has changed for good.
Much before the results started pouring in and

the trends showed AAP candidates much ahead
and celebrations began outside the East Patel
Nagar office of the party and at the park opposite it. Revellers shouted slogans, showered rose
petals and waved the national flag.
The jubilation in the locality and outside the
Patel Nagar metro station was mind-boggling.
An unusual scene on the streets of Patel Nagar
was the sea of white topis (caps) as far as the
eye could see. Autowallahs, e-rickshaw drivers
and cycle rickshaw pullers were all sporting the
white AAP topi and shouting the party's slogan:
Paanch Saal Kejriwal (Five years for Kejriwal).
Ramprasad, a cycle rickshaw puller ferrying this
correspondent from the East Patel Nagar office
of the Aam Aadmi Party to the metro station,
said, Yeh humari jeet hai (This is our victory).
Finally, a right man, Arvind Kejriwal has been
elected to be the chief minister of Delhi.
Its is the victory of none other than the aam

aadmi (common man) - is what could be heard
throughout East Patel Nagar the headquarters of the AAP, with a sea of people all around
greeting one another.
While thanking the party workers and the
people of Delhi, Kejriwal from the balcony of
his party office said, We shouldnt become arrogant after this verdict. Its arrogance that has
reduced the Congress and the BJP to this state.
Weve to serve the people with folded hands
(Haath jod kar humey sewa karni hai). Otherwise people will reduce us to the same state
after five years.
The results showed 67 seats for the AAP (declared and leading) and three for the BJP. The
Congress scored a grand total of zero.
It was equally chaotic situation around the AAP

office. People, volunteers and followers could
be seen showering rose petals and cheering
with blue balloons, cut-outs of Kejriwal and the
party's symbol the jhaadu (brooms).
Pankaj Gupta, a senior AAP leader and a key
strategist for the party told Firstpost: We were
definite about getting 50 seats as Yogendra
Yadav had projected. But todays result speaks
about the faith that the Delhi voters reposed
in us. They really understand who to vote for.
They cant be fooled by false claims. People
have voted for us knowing that the AAP would
deliver what it has committed to. Now, we have
a lot of pressure on us. We have to perform and
assure Delhiites that we would deliver what we
had promised.
Among those on the streets of Delhi, many were
jubilant over the AAP's victory.
Riyazuddin, an auto-rickshaw driver said: Ye

jeet logon ki mohabbat ka nateeza hai (This win
is the result of the peoples love). All autowallahs unanimously voted for AAP.
Shamshad Khan, another autorickshaw driver
who came from Okhla to the AAP headquarters
to be a part of the historic moment, said,This
is the result of Kejriwals 49-day government,
as we saw its effects ourselves. This time, physically challenged, ill and the old, all came out to
vote in large numbers and that is why AAP has
got such a phenomenal victory.
Amidst a huge cheering crowd of AAP members, volunteers, local residents and people
from other parts of Delhi who were a part of the
victory celebration, a sexagenarian couple from
East Patel Nagar was found moving around with
blue balloons.
The woman, 62-year-old Asha Jain, said, People in Delhi are tired of Congress. The BJP cant
do anything as it has proved in the functioning
of the municipal corporation. The best option
was AAP and the voters took a chance by bringing in AAP with a majority.
Her husband, 66-year-old AK Jain, This landslide victory is the result of peoples anger. The
days of speeches and rhetoric are over.
Another senior citizen Vinay Aneja from nearby
Ramesh Nagar said, We expect the promises
made by AAP to be delivered soon, people have
voted for change from regular parties over the
traditional ones. However, we also wish to see
Arvind Kejriwal spending his time on making
Delhi a better state and not just on agitations,
dharnas and blame games as what happened
during his last 49 days tenure.
Delhi election result: Its a victory for

truth, says Kejriwal after landslide win
IANS, February 10, 2015
ew Delhi: In his first public comments

after his AAP won a landslide in Delhi's
assembly election, party leader Arvind
Kejriwal Tuesday described it as "a victory for
truth and honesty".
As Kejriwal made his brief comments, giving

due credit to the AAP's victory to the voters and
his activists, he said: "This is not a victory of the
AAP. This is a victory for truth and honesty."
Addressing thousands of cheering supporters at

the AAP office in central Delhi, Kejriwal said an
Aam Aadmi Party government would work in a
manner that both the poor and the rich would
be proud of Delhi.
The 46-year-old then introduced his wife Sunita to the frenzied crowds chanting "Paanch
Saal Kejriwal!" slogans and waving hundreds
of party flags and brooms -- the AAP election
symbol.
"This is my wife," he said, putting his arm
around her shoulders. And as she folded her
hands in greeting triggering a roar, he added: "I
would have never been able to work if she had
not supported me."
Amazing stats from Delhi polls: 55 AAP

MLAs won with more than 50% vote share
FP Staff, February 12, 2015
he Delhi election results have given the

Aam Aadmi Party a landslide win of 67
seats out of a total of 70 seats. The party
which won 28 seats in the last election, completely routed the BJP, which was reduced to a
mere 3 seats from its previous tally of 31.
AAP's victory is much more impressive if you
look at the fact that the party managed to get
54.3 percent of the total vote-share, which is a
rare feat indeed for any party in India. In the
Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the AAP had got
a vote-share of 32.9 percent in Delhi. Even
though this was an increase from its vote share
of 29 percent in 2013 Assembly elections, the
party had failed to win any seat but finished
second in every seat.
The Delhi election results have seen new

records being set in nearly each constituency.
According to the Association of Democratic
Reforms, the average vote-share of all the MLAs
who won the election was 55 percent and that
55 (79 percent) out of 70 MLAs won with a vote
share of 50 percent or more. All of these are
AAP MLAs.
We take a look at some interesting statistics
regarding the Delhi election:
It wasn't party chief Arvind Kejriwal but MLA
Prakash Jarwal won with the highest vote share
(71 percent) in the Deoli constituency of Delhi.
He is also the youngest candidate from the party
at 25-years-old and had left a job at a multinational firm to join the party.
MLA who won with the highest vote share at 71percent

MLA Kailash Gehlot from Najafgarh, who also belongs to AAP won with the lowest vote share of 35
percent. Gehlot is an advocate and RTI activist. He also had the lowest margin of victory.
MLA who won with lowest vote share.
Lower percentage of margin of victory

Sandeep Kumar from AAP had the highest margin of victory in percentage. He beat BJP councillor
Prabhu Dayal and four-time legislator and sitting MLA Jai Kishan of Congress in the election.
AAP's Sandeep Kumar had the highest percent of Margin of victory.

AAP's Mahender Yadav had the highest margin of victory in terms of votes from Vikaspuri. Yadav
had also won from Vikaspuri in 2013 elections.
MLA with highest margin of victory in terms of votes.

Only 0.4 percent of the votes polled were NOTA. Matiala saw the highest number of NOTA votes at
1102.
And finally an infographic showing the Delhi vote share percentage, along with the number of
MLAs who won by more than 50% of vote-share.
Zero MLAs with serious criminal charges:

Delhis new assembly is the cleanest in India
FP Politics, February 12, 2015
n a welcome change from the politics we are used to seeing in India, it turns out that most of
the newly elected Delhi MLA's don't have serious criminal charges against them.
In a report analysing the Delhi poll result, the Association of Democratic Reforms has said,
"Out of the 70 MLAs, 24 (34%) have declared criminal cases against themselves. 23 (34%) AAP
MLAs out of 67 MLAs have declared criminal cases while 1 (33%) out of 3 BJP MLAs has declared
criminal cases. Out of 70 MLAs in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2013, 25 (36%) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves and in the 2008 Delhi Assembly Elections 29 (43%) out of
68 MLAs analysed had declared criminal cases."
"There were no MLAs who declared heinous criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, crimes
against women etc which is a welcome change and is unusual as compared to the rest of the country."
The report also analysed the newly elected MLAs on the basis of wealth, education and gender.
In terms of wealth, it turns out that 63 percent of the elected legislators are crorepatis, which is
a ten percent drop from the number of crorepatis who were elected in 2013. It is also lower than
the 69 percent crorepatis in the 2008 assembly. The new assembly is also a lot younger than ever
before. 70 percent of the MLAs are between 25 and 70 years of age.
In fact the average age of the MLAs is 42 years, primarily due to 28 newly-elected MLAs, who fall
in the 25-40 years age bracket, a 35 percent rise as compared to the last Assembly.
You can read the whole report here:
Pundits got it wrong: Post-poll survey
shows how AAP engineered its shocking win

lmost one in every two voters voted for

the AAP in Delhi. Defying pundit predictions of a class war, support for the party
ate into what were traditional vote banks of
national parties like the Congress and BJP. The
biggest factor in the AAP landslide: its choice of
Chief Minister.
Here's what the final vote shares across parties
looked like:
hat's the conclusion of a CSDS-Lokniti

post-poll survey conducted on 7 February found. It is just one of the many
notable insights offered by the survey, which
also maps the sheer breadth and reach of AAP's
popularity.
AAP swept aside all caste/class barriers
As we'd pointed out earlier, certain seats in the
national capital are dominated by particular

communities and therefore considered strongholds of particular parties. AAP swept aside
such traditional notions of 'safe' seats in its
march towards victory.
While the BJP may have largely held on to the
support of particular castes like Brahmins and
Jains, it saw an deep erosion in the number of
people supporting it from other upper caste
communities like the Punjabi Khatris and Rajputs. The traditional support base of the Congress seems to have moved almost completely to
the AAP. The absence of identity-based voting
is glaringly evident in the case of the four Shiromani Akali Dal candidates who were fielded to
win seats where the Sikh and Punjabi community votes played a role, but all of them ended
up on the losing side.
The C-voter exit poll indicated that the AAP enjoyed greater support among the young but had
a wide lead when it came to the relatively less
educated of the city. It enjoyed much greater
support when it came to those engaged in blue
collar jobs and students while it was neck and
neck with the BJP among the professional class.
The CSDS- Lokniti survey, however, shows that
the AAP won 66% of the poor, 57% of the lower
class, 51% of the middle class, and 47% of the
upper class. BJP did far better in the poshest
areas of Delhi, but in the end won only 43% of
the upper class votes. All that talk about a class
war turned out to be just hot air in the end.
The two surveys show that will have to recognise the fact that the voter is no longer held
by old loyalties, as Firstpost Executive Editor,
Lakshmi Chaudhry, observed,
The base the solid voting bloc that a party
or leader can rely on winning as a bare minimum in a given election is shrinking. We are
witnessing the rise of the independent voter
who is driven purely by self-interest, and who
will increasingly become the decisive factor in
Indian elections, much as in the United States.
Kejriwal can no more rely on her allegiance
than a Modi.
campaign. This probably justifies the BJPs

hasty decision of playing the Bedi gamble.
Again, one could argue probably that the BJP
had to do something out-of-the-box to have a
chance. The distress call by BJP in the last leg
of campaigning by roping in the Prime Minister and his cabinet helped the party salvage
some of its vote as the gap narrowed to some
extent among those who decided close to voting
(26 per cent). The intensive BJP campaign in
the last 10 days seems to have been just enough
for it to retain its core support group.
So while we're all beating up on Amit Shah,
his choices in the last month of campaigning
were perhaps what preserved BJP's vote share.
But the numbers also show that it was too late.
BJP's high visibility effort that relied on advertisements, Facebook and Twitter campaigns
likely did little to change the outcome, according to the survey. In the end, AAP won with a
better ground game, more appealing message,
and of course, CM candidate.
Kejriwal mattered
The one factor that was perhaps most underestimated in TV studios and opinion columns
was the personal popularity of Arvind Kejriwal. Making him the AAP choice of CM was in
the end the single biggest factor in the party's
sweep.
The post poll survey also found that a majority

of the voters (62 percent) had made up their
mind well before the parties began campaigning, and the skew was decidedly in favour of
AAP. The authors of the survey write:
The CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey found that

Kejriwal enjoyed a far higher standing among
voters than Kiran Bedi, even on subjects that
she spoke extensively on, such as the safety of
women. Whether it was solving the city's water
and power woes, tackling the problems of the
city's slums, running the government or curbing corruption, Kejriwal enjoyed the trust of
the Delhi voter far more than his BJP rival, and
Modi's best efforts did little to change that view.
Neither Bedi nor Modi could hold on to the
additional voters brought in by the Modi wave
in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, who ended up
in the AAP camp this time around, leaving BJP
with little more than its traditional base.
Among the earliest decision-makers, the AAP

enjoyed a lead of 22 percentage points over
the BJP. The gap widens to almost 37 points
among those who decided early during the
In a number of ways, the survey confirms what

we already suspected at the sight of that 67
number. But the real scale of the victory will
be evident only once the Election Commission
Amit Shah's last minute scramble was

justified and futile
releases its data which will show us just how

AAP dismantled the BJP and every other party
so comprehensively in Delhi.
#AAPSweep to #AAPKiDilli: After historic

win, AAP hashtags take Twitter by storm
PTI, February 10, 2015
ew Delhi: The landslide victory of AAP

in Delhi today sent netizens into a
frenzy as they flooded social network-
of every AAP volunteer."

"An apology from the PM for losing touch with
the people would go a long way. Followed by
major anti-corruption reforms and changes in
BJP," tweeted author Chetan Bhagat.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kejriwal and posted,
"Spoke to @ArvindKejriwal & congratulated
him on the win. Assured him Centre's complete
support in the development of Delhi."
ing sites with messages congratulating Arvind

Kejriwal and his party.
Hashtags like #AAPSweep, #AAPKiDilli,
#KisKiDilli and #DelhiLegislativeAssembly
trended throughout the day with numerous
tweets and Facebook posts pouring in from
across the country.
Actress Shabana Azmi posted, "The indian
voter deserves all our respect.Congratulations
to #AAP. Dilli ne keh diya ab tumhare hawale
watan saathiyo.ball is in your court (sic)."
Film maker Pritish Nandy tweeted, "Indian voters are very sharp. Never underestimate them.
They know the power they wield."
Kiran Bedi also tweeted, "Full marks to Arvind.

Congratulations. Now take Delhi to the heights
it belongs to. Make it a world class city". West
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also
congratulated Kejriwal for the victory.
She tweeted, "My hearty congratulations to AAP
for sweeping Delhi Elections. All the best @
ArvindKejriwal the new CM."
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah posted, "Wow, well done #Delhi
& well done @AamAadmiParty. Good luck to @
ArvindKejriwal for the next 5 years."
According to social media watchdog Buzzooka
'#AAPSweep' was trending at the top spot in
India with 29,000 tweets during first half of the
day.
Director Shekhar Kapoor wrote, "And now,

Dear @ArvindKejriwal it's time for you to prove
you deserve the
immense faith that Voters have put on ur shoulders #DelhiDecides."
One Dibyesh Anand wrote on twitter, "A great

news that gives hope against majoritarian
nationalism in democracy #DelhiElections
#AAPSweep" another netizen Mansihullah
Budye wrote, "When #Delhi went to poll, no one
in their right mind would have predicted this
result. #DelhiDecides #AAPSweep"
AAP leader and actress Gul Panag wrote, "What

makes this victory sweeter is that it was won
against all odds. I bow to the effort and energy
"#AAPSweep Unbelievable mandate. Let the

deserving win and hopefully Capital City will
become the best city in the world. ALL THE
BEST," tweeted Aparna Chakraborty.

A lot of netizens were also seen taking a dig at
BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi for
the party's defeat.
"#AAPSweep It took 20 days for @thekiranbedi
to ruin all the hard work party workers have
done in years!" wrote Neha Gupta.
Who was least wrong? All the Delhi exit

poll predictions completely miss the mark
he Aam Aadmi Party has won 60 and

leading in seven of Delhi's 70 seats, an
unprecedented margin of victory. The
BJP is down to a paltry three seats with the
Congress no where in the picture.
of them had foreseen a neck-to-neck fight between AAP and BJP. But the Delhi mandate has
proved all of them wrong.
Although, the exit polls had predicted a dramatic comeback for AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, all
Mufflerman is now Godzilla: Arvind

Kejriwals 54% victory is baap of all mandates
R. Jagannathan, February 10, 2015
elhi is an unusual election in many

ways. It fact it is an outlier by any
standard of Indian voting behaviour
seen in the recent past.
The reason is not the landslide win for Arvind
Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which gives
it a 60-plus seat majority in a 70-seat assembly.
What makes Delhi different is that, possibly
for the first time in several decades, one party
is likely to receive more that 50 percent of the
popular vote.
Narendra Modis vote in 2014 was 31 percent
The BJP, despite the pathetic seat count, has

actually held on to its voter base. It got more
votes than what it did the last time, but it got
almost none of the incremental vote. It did not
benefit from the collapse of the Congress vote or
from the new voters who entered EVM booths
for the first time this time This means it has a
base to build on, but must actively woo the new
demographic in the coming months and years to
stay relevant.
The Congress has been trounced badly. It has
seen its 2013 vote down to a third of its previous
level, which means the party is rapidly becoming irrelevant in Delhi, too a state it ruled with
distinction for 15 years upto December 2013.
That only party (BSP) got past the 1 percent
mark tells its own story. It means Delhi is beginning to transcend the caste and community
divide. Neither INLD (Jats), nor the Akali Dal
(Sikhs) got to 1 percent.
Looked at another way, the Delhi vote is an even
bigger threat to the regional parties in other
parts of the country than just for the BJP.
for the BJP. Akhilesh Yadavs vote in 2012 was

under 30 percent for a majority. Almost no
party which swept to power has got more than
35-40 percent of the popular vote.
Voting trends available till around 10.30 am,
which have held all through the morning, show
AAP with 53.2 percent of the total vote, against
the BJPs 33.8 percent and Congresss 8.5 percent. The rest got peanuts, if at all.
Seldom has one party got this kind of mandate
ever in a fragmented Indian election. This is a
mandate like almost no other.
But, first, it is necessary to assess what happened, before we discuss the implications of this
vote.
Probably for the first time ever, though we saw

glimpses of it in the May 2014 elections too, a
state is voting more on class lines, even though
AAP has demonstrated a hold among all classes.
The underclass and the minorities were the bedrock of AAPs support, even though it did well in
all segments.
What unites all classes (at least temporarily) is
probably the idea of less corruption and good
government, but this will not endure. Any state
with finite resources will have to decide how
to allocate its spending. It cannot pay Pappu,
Rahim and Singh uniformly. It has to choose
its priorities, and, in the process, it can alienate
some segments.
Logically, the best way forward for AAP to creCopyright 2012 Firstpost
ate a long-term viability for its political position

is to concentrate on delivering public goods
law and order, clean water, reduction of corruption, good social and physical infrastructure,
including better education and health facilities
and go easy on private goods (freebies, cheaper power, food and other subsidies). The AAP
manifesto has, however, promised too much
here too.
This is where AAPs 50 percent plus vote share

is worrisome. This means everybody has voted
for it for his or her own reason, and so the
chances of being able to meet everybodys excessive expectations are remote.
I would not like to be in Arvind Kejriwals shoes
right now. His mandate is truly scary.
AAP will succeed not by extending the reach of

the state endlessly, but by redefining its role in
order to allow priority to the provision of public
goods and services. Private goods and subsidies
should be the exception. But its aam aadmi base
will be demanding more freebies.
Business-friendly Kejriwal? What

made baniyas choose AAP over BJP
Sunainaa Chadha, February 10, 2015
ith all trends clearly showing a clean

sweep by Aam Aadmi Party, party
chief Arvind Kejriwal has not only
won the support of the working classes and the
lower middle classes but has also won over the
BJP's core constituency of the upper castes especially the trader class - with the promise of
a corruption-free society and rationalision of
VAT.
Even though Corporate India has often criticised AAP for being too populist, it hasn't
stopped the party from winning the support of
some members of the business community who
are prepared to put their money where their
mouths are. The reason? BJP never walked the
talk in Delhi. Despite initially refusing to form
the government as it was short on numbers, it
made no effort to form a government in the last
several months, leaving many traders high and
dry.
Apart from just promising lower water and
power tarrifs, this time around Kejriwal went
one step further to win over the 25 lakh strong
trader community, that constitutes about 20
percent of the electorate in Delhi and has for
long been a safe BJP constituency.
He did so with the promise of lowering valueadded tax on products, which were higher in
states, especially neighbouring ones. Consumers
and traders have both expressed their unhappiness with the arbitrary manner VAT is currently calculated without a proper rationale.
Kejriwal also floated a proposal to initiate the
online payment of taxes.
Then during his rallies, Kejriwal described
himself as a baniya, playing on his Aggarwal
gotra - and he successfully used it to exploit an
anti-BJP sentiment among the baniya voters
in the capital following the cartoon-based poll
advertisement released by the BJP insulting
Kejriwal for his caste, using the term upadravi
(nuisance causing) gotra.
As Firstpost reported earlier, Kejriwal was
quick to capitalise on the situation and had
dragged the attention of the whole Agarwal
community, despairing over the insult and
demanding an apology. The BJP targeted my
children in their ad, but I kept quiet, didn't
react. They has been launching personal attacks
on me through their ads, but they referred to
the entire Agarwal Samaj as Updravi', Kejriwal
had alleged earlier.
As it is, the BJP-led central government has
been struggling to address the community's
misgivings over Foreign Direct Investment in
retail and Kejriwal positioning the ad as an insult to the entire community only added to the
BJP's jitters.
His political mandate has also promised a restructuring of the tax regime in Delhi as well as
putting an end to the extortion and raid racket
by the VAT department. He also assured the
community that the party would have a singlewindow clearance system for those wanting to
open businesses in Delhi and promised that all
transactions would be made online to reduce
the interface with the city government.
There will be minimum interference from the
government. Our partys policy is not to indulge
in raids, but trust the traders. Our government

will see the end of VAT raids and extortion
racket and create a business-friendly environment, Kejriwal had told the traders community
ahead of the Assembly polls. To add to that,
AAP volunteers left no stone unturned either
and those belonging to the baniya caste were
given the responsibility to campaign and sway
voters from their community.
Manoj Agarwal, a businessman from Rohini

echoed Bajoria's views. " At the central level,
I still prefer the BJP government, but when it
comes to state elections, Arvind Kejriwal has my
vote purely because he is an academic and and
a mechanical engineer and our country needs
people like him because he is a doer, unlike
the rest of the politicians who are just chasing
power," he told Firstpost.
It seems that AAP's promise to abolish the inspector raj has won over the trading community
which has for borne the brunt of surprise raids
on them by different departments time and
again.
In other words, it is felt that Kejriwal, understands the nitty-gritty of finance and corporate
manoeuvres better than many other politicians,
and that is enough for the trading class to give
the party a second chance.
"At the end, everybody wants an honest face

and Kejriwal scores on that front," Himanshu
Bansal, a banker in Delhi who has been rooting
for Kejriwal told Firstpost. He further added
that the trading community has been rather
impatient with the central government. " BJP
promised heaps in its manifesto but on the
ground nothing has improved. Secondly, Bedi
may be a clean and honest person too, but Kejriwal has won our hearts by showing resolve to
address local issues first," he said.
As this Economic Times article points out,

"Kejriwal studiously cultivated his middle class
base by carefully avoiding a Dalit messiah or a
minority protector image. Despite Dalits being
his core vote bank, Kejriwal has not made any
special casteist appeal or extra promises for the
homeless, jobless, insecure Dalits. Similarly, Kejriwal did not make a high profile visit to Trilokpuri after the riots or to any of the churches that
were vandalised. He sort of silently conveyed
to his mass base that he will take special care to
protect the interests of the Dalits and the minorities."
"AAP is the only party talking with sense and

purpose. Modi conducted so many rallies but
did not touch a chord with us in Delhi. AAP
has spoken about development, water, power,
electricity . I am a business man and VAT simplification and a corruption-free society is key.
Water and electricity affect the workers in my
factory, which in turn affects me," said Vinay
Bajoria, a businessman based out of Okhla who
also voted for AAP.
So, while the slum dwellers and Muslims have

gravitated towards the Aam Aadmi Party, leaving the Congress high and dry, the AAP has also
managed to wrench from the BJP many votes
of the business community with its promises to
end extortion and petty corruption.
Election mystery: How did Delhi exit
polls completely miss the AAP tsunami?

sephology is an inexact science, especially in a diverse voter population like

that of India. Even so, one has to wonder
whether all is right with the opinion polling
industry where no one got it right this time in
Delhi except the broad point of a clear win for
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
While one can leave pre-election opinion polls

out of the analysis, since voter intent can change
by voting day, the fact that even the exit polls
got it all wrong is worrying. Exit polls should
normally be more accurate, since they seek
to measure actual voter behaviour, not voter
intent.
The exit polls this time estimated AAPs seat
tally from a high of 53 seats by India News- Axis
to a low of 31-39 at the bottom end by CVoter.
Others predicted seats in the mid-range - 48
(News 24-Chanakya), 43 (IT-Cicero), and 39
(ABP News-Nielsen).
The best effort by India News-Axis was still
a huge 25 percent off from the actual number of
seats the party won (67). It is significant that an
exit poll was not able to make better predictions
even in a mostly two-horse race.
Of course, it can be argued that the projection of
seats from vote shares can be tricky in a first-
past-the-post system, but did they even get it

right on the vote share front?
Absolutely not. Axis gave it the best shot and
gave AAP 49 percent of the vote which is still
more than 10 percent off from the real AAP vote
share of 54.3 percent. A 10-11 percent margin of
error is far, far beyond any reasonable range of
acceptability in an exit poll. It makes no sense
to poll with this kind of margin of actual error.
You can get a reasonable estimate of which way
the wind is blowing merely by talking to cabbies
and chaiwalas which is what visiting journos
tend to do during election time. That there was
such a wide margin of error in a largely twohorse race seems scandalous.
This is not to suggest that some of the pollsters
may have fiddled with the figures to get the
answers their clients were seeking, but it does
raise questions about their methodology, and
whether they are missing something else.
It is also possible to argue that in wave elections, pollsters cant really get the final seat tally
right, but this is only partly valid. In Delhi, they
got even the vote shares badly wrong, remember?
One also wonders if pollsters ought to take
something more into account beyond what people are actually telling them.
For example, even as early as September 2014
five months before the actual polling day
in February 2015, when Arvind Kejriwal was
presumed to be hors de combat India Today's
Mood of Delhi poll was showing him as the
preferred choice for CM of Delhi even while voters also saying that they would vote BJP. This
dichotomy was never explained. In November,
when the PM and Amit Shah were campaigning
in J&K and Jharkhand, another poll showed the
same results: Kejriwal for CM, BJP for win.
If pollsters wanted Kejriwal as CM, and were

simultaneously indicating a pro-BJP voting
intent, what were they really saying? That they
would vote BJP if they gave them a leader like
Kejriwal? Or that their heart wanted Kejriwal,
even though their reason told them the BJP
would win anyway?
Many polls also indicated that Delhi wanted
Kejriwal as CM and Modi as PM as far back as
2013 December and early 2014. This signal too
got drowned out in the noise.
The voter, in a sense, was sending clear signals,
but neither the pollsters nor the media picked it
up.
Seats and vote shares cannot be predicted only

by relying on the answer to the main question:
will you vote BJP, AAP or Congress? The voters
real answer may often be: it depends.
In Kashmir, for instance, the mere fact that the
BJP was seeking power in the Valley brought
out more voters to the booths in order to stop
it. They voted for parties they thought would be
best placed to keep the BJP out of the Valley.
In Delhi, once Congress looked like a loser, the
ultimate result depended on figuring out how
many will stay loyal to the party on voting day,
and how many will swing towards AAP. This is
what the pollsters failed to do.
There is also the other issue: from poll to poll,

the Congress appeared to be getting squeezed
out. How come no one suggested which way this
vote would swing finally?
Psephology clearly is much art as science. The
differing signals on leadership, actual party
preference, and estimating which way voters
would swing if their own preferred first choice
party didnt look like winning clearly need
to be combined better to give us more credible
final results.
Landslide victory in Delhi: Heres why

AAPs humility after victory is touching
Chandrakant Naidu, February 11, 2015
uch victories could cause vertigo. AAP

leaders are sensibly guarding against losing equanimity on touching such dizzying
heights. Arvind Kejriwal was the first to use the
adjective scary for the unprecedented mandate. This fear is welcome as long as he and his
colleagues keep their feet grounded and remain
loyal to the guiding principles of the party.
The party picked up the thread after the Lok

Sabha jolt and got down to meeting people in
lanes and by-lanes. This simple trick of doorto-door campaign for man to man connect was
in striking contrast to BJPs ad blitz, high profile road shows, hours of airtime on electronic
media. Keriwal got back the warmth he offered
to lower middle class and marginalised people
in downtown Delhi. He came to be seen and accepted as one of them.
He presented a complete contrast from the
haughty counterparts the BJP and the Congress
that had lost connect. Despite having been at
the helm in Delhi and the nation for 15 years the
Congress could not win back the voters heart.
After scoring a nought in the Lok Sabha elections it repeated the showing in the assembly
elections and was content to draw vicarious
pleasure from BJPs dismal performance.
The party has redefined political austerity. It

has set new rules the two mainstream parties,
the Congress and the BJP, would find hard to
follow. During the campaign the AAP apologised to the voters of Delhi for quitting the government in just 49 days last year. The party thus
harmed the BJP most by subtly highlighting its
arrogant and abusive conduct. Apologies have
become unknown to the BJPs new dispensation
under Narendra Modi- Amit Shah.
Others may have forgotten the slaps Kejriwal
took for abdicating Delhi a year ago. Kejriwal
apparently did not. Instead of losing cool Kejriwal and his colleagues steadfastly began reconnecting with the Delhi voters. The AAP deserves
praise for acknowledging and appreciating the
anger that resulted in violent reactions. The
auto rickshaw pliers who were tired of extortion
by policemen were upset by Kejriwals desertion. So were the others of that socio-economic
strata.
The AAP has learnt from own as well as from

others' mistakes. Kejriwal has brought a whiff of
fresh air by candidly acknowledging the enormity of the task in the wake of such mandate. His
colleague repeatedly asked the party supporters
not to go overboard in revelries as the actual
celebrations should start when the party delivers on promises.
The BJPs reaction to the Lok Sabha results in
Delhi was not so humble. It had a support in
60 out of the 70 assembly segments. The Delhi
MPs took just eight months to squander that
mandate. The party strayed away from with its
constituents and also started losing touch with
own cadre. People like Arun Jaitley with no
electoral victories to their credit directed the
election campaigns. Kirti Azad the party MP
was among the first to criticise the leadership
without mincing words. He did not name Jaitley or party president Amit Shah, but drove the
message home referring to the changing culture
in the party.
People in Delhi have seen a much sober face

of the BJP even during the NDA rule. The
party now gives the impression of being power
drunk. Amit Shah scoffing at all exit poll surveys and insisting that the party would still win
two thirds majority presented an anti-pole to
suave Kejriwals, Manish Sisodia or Yogendra
Yadav. Non-Muslims and fair-minded orthodox
Hindus also were dismayed at the Love Jihad
and ghar-wapsi moves and more-children calls
while of Prime Minister Narendra Modi pursued a dubiously half- hearted and full-throated
secularism.
This historic mandate should worry the electorate as much as it scares the AAP. People have
seen the Janata Party frittering away a massive
mandate in just 18 months in the 70s and then
Rajiv Gandhi throwing away a bigger vote in
just two years in the eighties.
The clock has already started ticking for the
AAP.
Through the campaign Kejriwal astutely

spurned Bukhari's overtures to avoid counterpolarisation and after the victory showed
enough magnanimity to announce that the
leader of opposition will be there regardless of
the strength on those benches. In a way it would
have been poetic justice for the BJP which denied the Congress post of leader of Opposition
in the Lok Sabha. With such little experience
in governance the new ruling party will virtually have no bridle in the form of opposition.
Leaders like Prashant Bhushan, Rajmohan
Gandhi Yogendra Yadav have promised to build
some mechanism to put all important decisions
through public scanner.
What AAPs victory means for BJP and Congress
Congress rout in Delhi: Will Rahul
Gandhi own responsibility now?

Sanjeev Singh, February 10, 2015
hough the focus of the Delhi elections

has been the rout of the BJP and the AAP
making this election look like a walk in
the park, the decimation of Congress is a development that should not be overlooked.
Its easy to look for many reasons why the Congress has failed to open its account this election, but the tough part is looking for answers
to a problem that keeps getting complex by the
day for the Grand Old Party.
Rahul Gandhi did take a step in the right direction by handing over the reins of Delhi Congress
to Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely. But
that was never going to make any difference to
the results, and the Congress was never in the
fight in an election dominated between the raw
power of BJP (read Modi) and the street power
of AAP (read Kejriwal). Lovely backed out of
the fight when he withdrew from contesting the
Gandhi Nagar seat, while Ajay Maken lost by
51,000 votes in the Sadar Bazar seat.
But what is disturbing is that the Congress vice
president went about the election campaign in a
listless manner, doing the occasional roadshow
and attending a few rallies in erstwhile Congress
strongholds. Traditional vote bank of urban
poor and minorities have shifted to a viable
secular alternative in the AAP, yet the Congress
did nothing to counter it, says V Mathew,

Executive Director Centre for Market Research
and Social Development.
Congress needs to hit the streets and start
afresh, and if Rahul Gandhi has any iota of self
respect, he should resign, he adds. While the
Gandhi scion has been busy meeting senior
leaders asking them for suggestions to prepare
the roadmap for the partys revival, nothing
concrete has come out of these meetings so far.
Both Maken and Lovely have sent their resignations to Congress president, but they are unlikely to be accepted. The party cadre remains down
and out and the final nail in the coffin has been
the shifting of the Muslim vote en bloc behind
the AAP. The systematic inroads made by the
AAP in Congress traditional bastion, lower income group and Dalits were wooed assiduously
while the Congress never prepared any counter
strategy.
And as the showdown began for the most bitter battle in Delhi, the irrelevance of Congress
in a direct fight between BJP and AAP left the
minorities with little option but to support the
party who was most likely to defeat BJP. Everyone knows Priyanka is the need of the hour, but
who will say that and face the partys ire, says
a former Congress leader. The way Rahul Ji is
running party affairs, more people will desert
the party in days to come he confides.
Though Congress leaders can never get enough
of saying that the party has seen many adverse
situations and has come out a winner, this latest result has shown that their time is fast running out. Either Rahul Gandhi hits the dust and
grime of electoral politics or makes way for the
prodigal daughter to give hope to the workers.
Yogendra Yadav is right, after AAP win, other
states will write off PM Modi at their peril

Piyashree Dasgupta, February 10, 2015
s PM Narendra Modi's staunchest rivals

cheered Aam Aadmi Party on from the
ring, the latter decided to play the adulation down and caution them that Brand Modi is
not a spent force yet.
As Modi-hater and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee felicitated Kejriwal and
AAP on Twitter, Yogendra Yadav said during a
panel discussion on NDTV that the Delhi election results are not in any way, indication of the
fact that Modi doesn't hold sway over voters in
states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"I do not agree with opposition leaders who are
becoming smug and think that this means that
BJP will lose in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Modi
has not lost his popularity and it would be completely wrong to think that," he told NDTV.
He argued that that the assumption that the
AAP win was more Delhi retorting to BJP, was
wrong, saying that Delhi had voted for the Aam
Aadmi Party because they had not let the voter
out of sight and done intensive groundwork from meeting voters door-to-door to assuring
them that they have their act together this time.
One has to agree with Yadav. Delhi was never a
BJP stronghold in the first place, with the 2013
elections leading BJP and AAP to victory on an
anti-Congress vote, rather than a pro-BJP one.

Secondly, the AAP had gotten everything from
symbolism to temper right this time, playing the
much abused victim with elan.
If 'Ab Ki Bar, Modi sarkar' was the perfect
catchphrase to carry BJP to victory in the general elections last year, 'Paanch saal Kejriwal"
was perfectly timed for this election and a wellgrounded tagline. Accused of being a 'bhagora'
and 'AK-49', thanks to his last stint as the CM,
'Paanch Saal Kejriwal' came with the promise
that the AAP party chief has learnt from his
mistakes and is willing to stick around.
Yadav also added that Narendra Modi was losing sight of the sophistication demanded of a
Prime Minister, and him resorting to abusing
Kejriwal and AAP in the worst possible ways
also worked in the benefit of AAP.
However, like Yadav pointed out, other states
shouldn't get giddy following AAP's success in
Delhi. Mostly because the voting demographic
of Delhi and other states are vastly different.
Delhi is more cosmopolitan with a fair share of
urban voters. It can be safely assumed that a
large chunk of Delhi's voters are bound to be offended by the offensive Hindutav rhetoric which
seems to be on a popularity curve following the
BJP's ascension to power. Some of them might
have also noticed how the BJP and Narendra
Modi has kept eerily calm on the Hindutva
forces on a romp at present. They are also the
kind of voter to analyse the promises made by
Modi as opposed to the ones delivered in the
past months he has been in power.
The average Delhi voter is not same as the average voter in a West Bengal or Bihar. The political alternatives to BJP in these states come with
the same mothballed appeal of pots-calling-kettles-black and have been guilty of practicing the
same divisive politics it accuses BJP of indulging in. For example, Mamata cannot stop panCopyright 2012 Firstpost
dering to the Muslim population in the state,

and neither will the political parties in Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar.
Then again, the leaders of these parties - SP,
JD(U), TMC - are all considered as chips off the
old political block, like the BJP leaders themselves. They practice the same old school caste,
religion specific politics. Basically, the political
rhetoric of these parties and that of the BJP is
basically indistinguishable.
Therefore, it is not safe to claim that Modi will

cease to be a cult personality in the rest of India.
Because, like it has been proved in the past,
Modi plays himself better than most of his political clones.
Also, AAP, unlike say a TMC, comes without its

share of corruption-related controversies.
Delhi defeat means 2015 has to be Modis
year of big reforms. Its now or never

he BJPs stunning defeat in Delhi at the

hands of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
should focus Narendra Modis government less on politics and more on economics.
The budget needs to be super-good on the

reforms front, and Modi and Arun Jaitley must
stake their all to get key legislation through,
especially the Land Acquisition Act. Even if they
need to agree to some changes insisted on by
the Congress or allies, the Act needs to be given
top billing. Else, growth itself will slow down.
The second most important legislation involves
allowing private mining in coal. An ordinance
already allows for this possibility, but this must
be liberalised further and legislated quickly.
India cant afford a coal monopoly.
If the initial focus on winning state assembly

elections was unavoidable since they came one
after the other after the Lok Sabha elections,
Delhi was where Modi and his party president
Amit Shah seriously miscalculated. It should
mark a turning point in their thinking.
While Shah should obviously take corrective action on the political front and fix the leadership
issues in his party, Modi needs to focus largely
on the economy. He cant leave it all to Arun
Jaitley, who appears to be a bit of a steady incrementalist. Elections may be won or lost, but
the big election in 2019 will be won or lost only
on the basis of his economic performance. 2015
should be the year of big-bang reforms. This is
the year to take the big risks politically.
The NDA government has already lost some
time in not pushing through the big reforms
in its first six months of office the so-called
honeymoon period. After Delhi, the honeymoon
is clearly over. But even now nothing is lost, if
Modi can just focus on legislation and economic
performance.
The third most important legislation is to enable privatisation through executive action
but there is no such legislation currently in
the works. If Modi has to find the resources
for growth this year and the next, he can find
them only by privatising banks and other nonstrategic public sector companies. This needs a
critical piece of legislation: an omnibus law that
allows government to hold a golden share, with
voting rights of 51 percent in certain defined circumstances like a national or economic emergency, even if the government divests upto 90
percent of the stock. This golden share concept
should be extended to nationalised banks and
all public sector organisations. This may need
changes in the Bank Nationalisation Act, and
various laws relating to the acquisition of public
sector oil companies.
What Modi should do is keep a restricted list of
public sector companies that will never be disinvested below 51 percent. I can think of a few like
SBI, one or two more big banks, ONGC, Indian
Oil, and some defence production companies.
Even the railways can ultimately be privatised
partially, but that fight can wait for another day.
The 2015-16 budget is the most important one
since 1991, and the legislations proposed above
are absolutely essential for India to hit a higher
growth path.
What Modi needs to remember is this: elections can be lost here or there, but the countrys
growth opportunities cannot be repeatedly lost
by governments failure to take bold decisions.
This is the message Modi needs to take to heart.

He still has more than four years in which to
deliver. But he cant do it if he lets 2015 become
yet another year of politics and minor reforms.
India has a positive demographic window for

the next decade or two, after which growth will
again start to falter as the population ages.
To be sure, Modi has worked hard on all fronts,

including economic reforms (diesel deregulation, ending policy paralysis, easing rules for
business, etc) but the public perception is that
he cares more about political outcomes than
economic ones.
India also has a huge youth population, which

is looking for jobs and growth to provide them
with hope.
Modis election in 2014 and AAPs spectacular
win today in Delhi (10 February) are driven by
the same demographics of hope. The young are
willing to give parties a huge mandate, in the
hope that they can deliver jobs and income enhancements. Their anger will be palpable if they
dont deliver.
In 2015, he needs to reverse this. If he misses

this chance, he may lose it forever.
Delhi poll results: AAPs landslide victory
show how media misread Modi wave

Lakshmi Chaudhry, February 10, 2015
ets be honest. The AAP landslide has

taken every political pundit by surprise.
Even those expecting a BJP loss could
not anticipate a washout of this size. While
everyone is busy decoding what AAP did right
and BJP did wrong, what the Delhi results also
reveal is the extent to which the media have
misread the Indian voter, and particularly, the
Lok Sabha elections, which spawned a number
of myths that have been demolished by the Kejriwal juggernaut.
Here then are five big mistakes made by the

media.
One, there is no Modi voter, or for that matter,
Kejriwal voter. In the wake of the Modi wave
that swept the 2014 elections, there was widespread consensus that he had built a vast base
of loyal voters who owed their allegiance to him
and not to the BJP.
But what Delhi shows is that the new Indian
voter has no use for the L-word. He or she can
happily vote for one leader or party in one election, and just as easily opt for the rival in the
other and within the space of 8 months. Sure,
Modi as PM is a-okay, so is Kejriwal for CM. No
matter how much the PM may try and convince
them otherwise.
The base the solid voting bloc that a party or
leader can rely on winning as a bare minimum

in a given election is shrinking. We are witnessing the rise of the independent voter who
is driven purely by self-interest, and who will increasingly become the decisive factor in Indian
elections, much as in the United States. Kejriwal
can no more rely on her allegiance than a Modi.
Two, the vote against Congress was not a vote
against its left-liberal worldview. There was
much self-congratulation amongst right-ofcentre pundits who saw the vote for Modi in the
parliamentary elections as a resounding rejection of handout politics. Except here is Kejriwal winning big on his 49-day track record of
electricity and water subsidies.
What Is clear is that the conflation of governance and centre-right economics was a bit of
wishful thinking. Populism appears to be as
popular as ever. Does it mean all of Delhi has
turned into a socialist mecca? Not quite. More
likely, the Indian voter wants a better life, and
is ideologically agnostic about how the government delivers it. If free market can create better
paid jobs and a better life, thats just peachy.
But if subsidies can keep those hideously high
bijli bills under control, hooray to that!
Talking heads can afford the luxury of ideology.
The aam aadmi is driven mostly by his wallet.
Three, polarisation isnt a brilliant electoral
weapon but a limited strategy that delivers
diminishing returns. The papers will filled with
paeans to Amit Shahs electoral genius in the
wake of the LS elections. 2014 was supposed to
have been a realigning election, with reverse
polarisation effectively breaking the DalitMuslim alliance in UP and Bihar. (All this while
experts were touting Modis ability to rise above
identity politics.)
As it turns out, the reverse polarisation card
only works in an already polarised environment
like Uttar Pradesh. In other parts of the country, amping up the religious rhetoric a la Sadhvi
Jyoti makes the natives restless and anxious
as did the Dalit-Muslim conflict engineered in
Trilokpuri. No one needs a riot when there are
jobs to be done and bills to be paid.
The strategy also falls flat when the other side
anticipates the play, and refuses to take the bait.
Unlike Sonia, Kejriwal didnt make the election
about secularism despite the tempting lure
of church attacks, ghar wapsi etc -- but stuck
to his bijli-paani playbook. As the Delhi elections show, the Indian voter has risen far higher
above identity politics than Modi himself.
Four, the impatient voter celebrated by the
media is , in fact, the dangerously fickle voter.
While the sheer size of the Kejriwal wave is
larger than the Modi tsunami -- albeit in a pond
called Delhi it shares many of the same characteristics, including the most alarming one:
A candidate whose victory matches the size of
his promises. Is it really good for democracy
to have an electorate that blindly votes for the
candidate who promises the most? And quickly
abandons the leader who cant deliver immediate results?
This is BJPs defeat and also Modis. Because

when he campaigned for the Lok Sabha polls,
he sold a dream of Achhe Din (Good Days) to
the voters. Many of us fell for that promise.
However, in last eight months since he became
the Prime Minister he has gone back on many
promises including the promise of reining in the
corruption, bringing back the black money. This
had led to the party and Modi losing their credibility which is seen in todays result, said Anna
Hazare when he emerged to comment on AAPs
victory.
This kind of expectation from a government
that was elected less than a year ago is astounding. Despite all the second-guessing about 10
lakh suits, the BJP government has not committed any gargantuan errors either in Delhi or
elsewhere that would justify such an ignominious defeat (even if they were perceived as the
incumbent party by default). The AAP landslide
is driven by the same junoon that propelled
Modi into power. That exaggerated hope leads
inevitably to exaggerated disillusionment. The
BJP rout will undoubtedly hearten Modi critics
but it should offer little comfort to Kejriwal who
is likely to feel the brunt of all that impatience
very soon.
Its all very well to say there is no comparison

between a national and a state election, but a
dramatic fall in vote share from 46.63 % in 2014
to 32.2 % is still notable. BJP won 57 out of the
70 constituencies in the LS polls. The result is
almost an exact reversal, delivered less than a
year later. Dilli point-black refused to go into
the future Modi ke saath.
Stop giving gyaan, we arent idiots: Aam

aadmis royal snub to BJP in Delhi polls
Akshaya Mishra, February 10, 2015
s defeats go, this has to be the most

comprehensive and the most humiliating for the BJP. It has lost the classes
and the masses in Delhi. Neither the politics
of communal polarization and caste games nor
the grand rhetoric on development worked. All
those dirty and below the belt attacks havent
worked either. Its leadership, upon which the
party prided itself, has just been delivered the
royal snub by the people.
has to remember a ruling party has to be much

more than an election-winning machine.
Election defeats and wins as well are rarely due
to one singular factor - a combination of several factors, both local and external, shape an
electoral verdict. The wave elections, which are
getting more frequent across the country now,
blur all traditional calculations and perceived
equations, including that of caste, class and
identity. The Delhi verdict reveals the frustration of people goes much beyond the local. It
has dimensions that deeply involve the central
government too.
The public perception is slowly turning against
the BJP. This election defeat may not harm it
much, but it certainly sends out the warning
message that henceforth all electoral battles will
be on a footing of equality with other parties. It
has squandered the popular goodwill that has
been tilting contests in its favour so far.
So how did the BJP lose the way it did? Here
are some reasons.
In India people vote mostly to punish the incumbent government. Bigger the public anger,
worse is the defeat. In Delhi the BJP was in
power by default. From the reaction across the
board post the results, from both voters and
non-voters, it is evident that most wanted the
BJP to lose more than the AAP to win. The party
would be loathe to admit this, but this indeed
was a referendum on the performance of the
central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The magnitude of the BJPs defeat would take
time to sink in, but the message is unambiguous. The partys grace period has ended. People
have sent it a curt reminder: stop giving gyaan,
we are not idiots. You are in because we wanted
a hopelessly corrupt and pathetic UPA to go.
You start delivering or elseIt depends how the
BJP recalibrates its strategy from here on. But it
1. Theres a growing perception that the government at the centre is a hopelessly attentionseeking one. It has got into the habit of trying
to impress too much. This is overbearing but
would still be fine if it matched achievements on
the ground. Seven months on and the gap between promise and delivery remains poor. This
has not stopped the party from making every
small development a big media event. People
can see through this.
2. The leader of the government is increasing
coming across as a self-obsessed individual busy
proving to the world his personal popularity.
He wants to be counted among the big league
of national icons too soon. That would not be a
problem if the effort was subtle and nuanced,
and theres substance to match. Nothing has
been subtle about him so far a dress with
ones name written all over does not particularly
convey the right signals and his promises are

yet to materilise on the ground.
3. The underclass has hit back in Delhi. If it
feels alienated under the current dispensation
the BJP has to blame its own outlook towards
the economy or at least the message it has been
conveying. It, egged on by cheerleaders in the
expert brotherhood, has been following an
economic policy that is cynical as well as perverse. To be fair, both Prime Minister Modi and
the BJP have been sober and balanced in their
views on the economy but the government is being seen increasingly as anti-poor and pro-rich.
The backlash was expected at some point. As
the government pushes ahead with its economic
agenda, the coming days would be interesting.
4. The victory of 2014, was never a victory for
the Hindutva ideology. The BJP was a purely
secular choice. They did not vote the RSS and
its affiliates into power. But the latter took the
mandate as license to Hinduise the country.
The normal Hindu society abhors social disharmony. Thus it does not approve of burning of
churches and attacks on Muslims. The government's silence on the activities of the Hindutva
forces has only made it look as a partner in
crime.
Dictatorial control over a democratic political

party does not work, it can be counterproductive. Victory alone cannot justify shabby treatment to party workers by way of induction of
outsiders. The Kiran Bedi move was a disaster
and this was done to show the local leadership
their place. A rebellion was waiting to happen
and it was a passive one in Delhi. The results
show not even the faithful stood by the party.
Never undervalue your own, should be the lesson for the party. They can and will strike back.
If the organization decides to go apathetic, the
leadership, howsoever charismatic can do little.
The BJP promised good governance. But matters other than governance have been dominating the public consciousness ever since it came
to power. Complacent after a series of assembly
victories, perhaps the party ignored these. After
the Delhi defeat it cannot be afford to do so.
The final message it can take from the elections:
never underestimate the common man.
Modi defeated Modi in Delhi polls:
He cannot avoid blame for BJPs rout

arendra Modi has a problem on his

hands. The initials of the problem are
not AK, suffixed with any number (49
or 67), but NM. Modi, in some ways, is his own
worst enemy.
that even when he is equal to the comparison,

he can offer nothing very new."
On the other hand, AK-67 was certainly an improved version from AK-49, and that made all
the difference.
The second reason why I see Modi as his own
worst enemy runs deeper. Here I can only
speculate and ask questions that only Modi and
people close to him can answer. But answer they
must to themselves.
There are two reasons for this. One stems from

the zero difference between Modi 2014 and
Modi 2015. We saw an extraordinary politician
rise before our eyes between December 2012
and May 2014, and a capable Prime Minister
between May and December 2014. The Modi
we saw in January-February 2015 was the same
man, the same communicator, the same powerful voice. But we had seen him, heard him, and
were wowed by him before. We expected more.
The question in the Delhi voters mind apart
from solutions to civic problems - was: what
could Modi offer her over and above what he
had offered to India over the last two years?
What walk could he offer over the talk?
The answer is zilch. As Santosh Desai wrote in
The Times of India: "Modi's challenge today is
that his biggest opponent is none other than
the memory of Modi last year. Last year he was
measured against Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and he towered over them in word,
gesture and strength. Today he is measured
against that Narendra Modi, and (one) finds
The primary question I would ask is this: how

self-aware is Modi? Other questions flow from
this. Does he know who his real friends and
real enemies are? Does he know the difference
between an uncritical bhakt and a thinking wellwisher? Does he understand the gap between
his own words and deeds that needs to be constantly monitored and bridged? Why is he able
to trust no one, or very few people? Is he able
to forgive people for their mistakes? Is he able
to forgive himself for his blunders, learn from
them, and move on? Is he aware of his own insecurities and able to deal with them?
The reason I raise the question of self-awareness is because Modi often seems blissfully
unaware of the impression he may be creating,
despite a carefully created public persona. What
was he thinking when he wore an expensive suit
with his name embroidered on it? Why did he
need to make a point about his alleged chemistry with Barack Obama? Obamas mild putdowns about the need for secularism in India
not once, but twice in less than a month
show that he may be as wary of Modi as he was
before May 2014. What he did by reaching out
to Modi after his election victory was to correct
a serious foreign policy lapse over the previous
five years, where the US, driven by evangelical groups, treated him like a pariah. It was a
foolish thing to do to an elected state CM, leave
alone a future PM. I doubt there was any real
chemistry between them and Modi did not seem

aware of the possibility that Obama was merely
being well-mannered by giving him a hug or not
being offended by being called Barack and not
President Obama. Modi seemed more eager to
claim chemistry and closeness with Obama that
what may actually exist between them.
The point I am driving at by bringing up these
elementary questions of self-awareness is simple: losing Delhi is less of a problem than an
unwillingness or inability to learn from it. Only
a self-aware person can learn from his mistakes. Modi should be asking himself: how did
I fail to see what was going on in Delhi when I
was sitting right there? Why did Amit Shah (or
others in the party) not tell me Arvind Kejriwal
was streets ahead of us in the battle for hearts
and minds? Were my victories in Maharashtra,
Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu the result of
something more than just my personal charisma and development promises? Why did
those same strengths not work in Delhi? Why is
the media celebrating my party's defeat when I
have worked 18 hours a day to set things right
in government and the PMO? Why are my own
political allies trying to rejoice over my defeat?
You can put your own answers (and Modi his)
against these questions to explain why BJP lost
in Delhi and why Kejriwal won. However, I can
bet one thing: in all these questions, Kejriwal
will probably have scored higher on self-awareness than Modi. And that may have made all the
difference to the Delhi outcome.
To be sure, Modi has shown an infinite capacity
to reinvent himself in the past he has come a
long way from 2002. The question is whether
he has come a long way from 2014. 2015 is not
2014. The challenges are completely different,
thanks to his own terrific success in wooing the
electorate in 2014. That has raised expectations
and benchmarks.
2015 is when Modi will have to ask harder questions of himself than of the people who work for
him.
For example, how is his talk of federalism going to be taken at face value if he does not give
Kejriwal what he wants: full statehood for Delhi,
control of the police force, running the Delhi
Development Authority, and his own version

of the Jan Lokpal Bill? Constitutionally, Modi
need not do any of these things, but if he is a
true believer in federalism he cannot deny these
powers to the elected government in Delhi. It
is, at least, possible to arrive at a compromise
on these issues, if not giving in totally to what
Kejriwal demands.
Secondly, Modi now needs to be more like Vajpayee a man he professes to admire while
dealing with ministry colleagues and allies.
It makes no sense to talk empowerment in
general, and still expect his ministers to clear
everything with him. It was all right to centralise powers at the start of the new government
(when ways of working had to be changed), but
not any more. His senior ministers need to be
empowered to take decisions. He can always
keep control, by holding them accountable for
their promises and performance. If he does not
do this, not only will he find resentment brewing, but it will lead to policy paralysis of a different kind with all things coming to him for
a decision. Even with an 18-hour workday, no
human being not even one with Modis superhuman work habits can do justice to so many
difficult decisions.
Modi made two good moves late last year by
bringing in Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu to his ministry. They added heft in a cabinet
seen as lacking serious talent beyond Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath
Singh. But it is inexplicable why an extraordinarily capable man like Arun Shourie was
kept out. He can be Modis biggest asset in any
ministry. Shourie is the true progenitor of the
telecom revolution, the man who untangled the
wires of crony capitalism and made the telecom
policy work. He is the man who made disinvestment and privatisation a reality.
Third, Modi needs to deal with his allies directly
using his personal political capital. Vajpayee
was able to run an unwieldy coalition largely
through the power of personality and his stature. Modi is not Vajpayee, but his prestige and
powers are no less. A direct approach to allies
whether it is the estranged Shiv Sena or the
more amenable allies in Andhra Pradesh and
elsewhere will work wonders for his agenda
of reforms. Without this, they will be either be
sulking in silence or trying to trip him up at

every juncture.
Fourth, Modi has to build new leaders in the
states. If he does not do that, the Kejriwals of
the world will easily defeat his party. For example, in Punjab his party is seriously compromised and the Akalis too are looking vulnerable
and unhappy with the BJP. In Mumbai, AAP
will find exactly the same traction as it did in
Delhi for the Sena-BJP-run corporation has
simply failed to deliver.
In Bihar, Modi has a leader in Sushil Modi, but
elsewhere he needs younger leaders who will
have to court the same demographic by being
physically in touch with the electorate.
The right way to reinvent NaMo is to do two
things: first, accept direct responsibility for the
Delhi defeat, and work on true devolution of
powers in his own ministry, in his party, and
with the states that are not ruled by his party.
He could begin with Kejriwal.
Five mistakes of Kiran Bedis life:
Why BJP was routed in Delhi

Debobrat Ghose, February 11, 2015
iran Bedis political career seems to

have ended even before it could take off.
Perhaps it wont make much of a difference to her she can dissociate herself from
politics and get on with social work. What intrigues many though is how everything could go
against her. She is certainly no lightweight when
it comes to public life. She has a strong brand
value, is the countrys first woman IPS officer,
she is a Magsaysay award winner and was one
of the leading figures in the Anna Hazare movement. So what went wrong?
and then appreciating him after joining the BJP,

dented her credibility. This is nothing but opportunism and one cant fool voters now-a-days.
People understand everything, said an analyst.
According to a party insider, No one openly
opposed her as it was the decision of the PM to
project her as a CM candidate, but there was
an undercurrent of rebellion in the party. She
failed to connect both with the party cadre and
the masses.
Even after the massive electoral drubbing,
Bedi courted controversy by telling the media
on Tuesday, It was not my lossit was BJPs
defeat.
Poor man-management skills:
In contrast to the Aam Aadmi Party convener
Arvind Kejriwal, Bedi failed to give a positive
leadership to the Delhi BJP. Immediately after
joining the party, she called a couple of MPs for
tea to her place. She reportedly didnt wait for
the Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was
10 minutes late to reach her residence.
Leadership requires a different set of skills. Her

achievements can only be a value addition to
her leadership skills, its never the other way
round, say political analysts. They point out to
five mistakes that saw her presiding over the
shameful rout of the BJP in the assembly polls.
Failure to connect:
According to political analysts, Bedis communication and body language during her rallies
reeked of arrogance. Her comment on Kejriwal
not being invited on Republic Day I think he
(Kejriwal) is playing sob sob. I think he must
grow up drew a lot of criticism in the media
and later became counter-productive for the
party.
By taking a U-turn on her earlier statements (on
Twitter in 2012 & 2013) against Narendra Modi,
Instead of calling the senior party leaders,

she should have gone to them and sought their
support. She had already considered herself as
Delhi CM and this became apparent during her
campaigns. She failed to provide a positive leadership to the party like Modi ji did during Lok
Sabha polls, remarked a senior BJP member
on anonymity.
A touch of conceit:
According to the voters who attended her rallies, these were negative and full of conceit.
Kejriwal directly spoke on our problems,
and what the AAP would do if they came to
power. Unlike her, there was no acrimony in
his speech. Bedi sounded more like a cop than
a would-be CM, remarked Syed Kaiser of
Ambedkar Nagar.
Bedi had thought that slamming Kejriwal would

help her in wooing voters, but it didnt happen.
I have 40 years of administrative experience
and that other man (Kejriwal) who is spreading lies has just five years of experience. He is
'bhagoda' and will run away again," she had
said while campaigning in Kirari constituency
of North-West Delhi. She described Kejriwals
influence as highly toxic and negative.
On the contrary, Kejriwal and team tactically
avoided calling names in general.
Even within the party, members feel that by
campaigning in other constituencies, Bedi minimized the winning possibility of the BJP. She
should have confined to her own constituency.
Her initial speeches caused immense damage to
the BJP and the poll result confirmed it. During
poll rallies, she used to move as a commander
rather than a team leader, a state BJP volunteer remarked.
I, me, myself:
Right from the party men to the voters, people
across the constituencies felt that she gave immense importance to self and almost on every
occasion, she spoke about her own achievements. Associating herself with the BJPs development agenda, she said, My name is now
Vikas Bedi.
While addressing a rally at Ambedkar Nagar
in South Delhi, she said, If I become the chief
minister and any policemen ask for money, you
should ask them that when...my CM has never
asked for money, so how could you demand
money?"
Its like playing your own trumpet. In her communication she tried to give a message that she
was an epitome of honesty and integrity. This
back-fired, added Kaisar.
Bad timing:
Bedi was brought into the partys fold hardly
three weeks before the Delhi polls. Immediately

after joining the party, her naming as the CM
candidate, didnt go down well with the leaders
and the members of Delhi BJP; especially by
those who had been working for the party for
decades.
To make her a winning candidate, she was made
to contest from the safe assembly seat of Krishna Nagar, from where Union minister Dr Harsh
Vardhan had been winning since 1993.
First, the locals couldnt accept the partys
decision of replacing Dr Harsh Vardhan from
this seat, who was also demoted in the Cabinet.
Second, Kiran Bedi was an outsider and the voters wanted someone local. She failed to connect
with the locals and ultimately she lost this battle, said Virender Raheja, a local resident.
Senior journalist and columnist Vir Sanghvi had
tweeted: Kiran Bedi really is her own worst enemy. Does making her CM candidate still seem
like a masterstroke?
The Delhi poll result gave the answer.
Beware a Congress-mukt Bharat: AAP

is not the BJP counter that India needs
Hasan Suroor, February 11, 2015
hile Hosanas have deservedly been

raining on the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) after its incredible performance in the Delhi elections, and the BJP is being
comforted by its dazed and distraught supporters, the Congress is mourning alone in what is
arguably its worst moment of shame, after having failed to win a single seat.
In recent months, there has been enough postmortem of the causes of Congress decline. I'll
come to that later.
First, the more pressing question of the longerterm implications of the Congress collapse--a
situation in which a 135-year-old party--the
country's only truly national mass political
organisation, a broad church with a history of
inclusiveness--ceases to exist.
Rajni Kothari, the great political scientist,
described the Congress as the authoritative
spokesman of the nation as well as an affirmed
agent of criticism and change, as historian
Ramchandra Guha recalled in an article.
The reasons for Congress hegemony, Guha
pointed out, included the fact that it was a
broad church, containing many shades of opinion within it. It had a strong presence in all
states of the Union".
No tears are being shed for the party's humiliation that saw it wiped out in area after area
where it had held sway until so recently.
Indeed, if anything, there's a barely concealed
sadistic glee even among its former supporters,
who are suggesting that the party it had it coming, and that it is the architect of its own misfortunes. Nobody seems to wish to waste their
breath even discussing it.
"What's there to discuss? Well, its is gone, it's
gone. Period," is a general reaction.
Yet, beyond the headlines about AAP victory
and BJP defeat, the real story of the Delhi
elections is where it leaves the Congress. Is it
the beginning of the end for India's Grand Old
Party? And should we be simply watching while
it is dying on its feet even if it only has itself to
blame for its shambolic state?
The Congress imprint was so substantial that

even its rivals had to work within the ideological parameters set by the party and its leaders.
Thus, most parties who opposed the Congress
still upheld welfarism, religious pluralism, and
non-alignment in foreign policy", he wrote but,
crucially, hastened to remind us that this was
before the Congress converted itself into a family firm" triggering its decline.
So, what happens when such a force collapses
without there being a credible alternative in
place?
The answer doesn't require much imagination
or great insight into how politics works. There's
only one thing that can happen in such a situation: a scramble among all manner of wannabes
to fill the vacuum caused by its destruction.
Since politics abhors a vacuum. All it needs for
any group to get a foothold is just about enough
chutzpah and gumption --with a please-all
agenda thrown in as bait to voters. Damn ideology or political vision.

In fact, we have already seen how the political
scene has fragmented ever since the Congress
decline began way back in the 1970s. The space
vacated by it has been filled by mostly lumpen
pretenders preening on the back of sectarian
policies.
contemplated what would it have been like living in a theocratic Hindu state like the one that
the BJPs parent organisation, the RSS, wishes
to impose on India?
Its important to point out that it is not as if
Muslims have been innocent victims of the Con-
Both the Sangh and Janata parivars --one

Hindu exclusivist, and the other casteist --are
products of this anti-Congress churning. And
a fat lot of good they have done to the country
which has become a boiling cauldron of divisive
passions. So much so that the prime minister's
best friend "Barack" felt compelled to issue a
warning.
The latest to walk into this Congress-created
vacuum is AAP whose ideological coherence
is about as credible as the Sangh and Janata
parivars claim to be inclusive. Ive consistently questioned AAPs ability to be a serious
long-distance runner, and I stick to it despite its
brave showing in Delhi.
AAP is all tactics, slogans and a lot of hot air. It
has no clearly thought out programme, no roadmap, and no proper organisation at the grassroots. It is essentially a protest group which has
converted itself into a political party to tap into
public disillusionment with mainstream parties.
And it feeds on negativity with floating voters as
its support base.
None of this is the hallmark of a credible national alternative to a party which, for all its
sins, has a cogent philosophy and a worldview;
a mass base even if it has been neglected and
allowed to rust; and an instinctive feel for the
inherent cultural diversity of this country.
This is where Muslims should worry whether
their visceral anti-Congressism, which translates into 'anyone but Congress' strategy is such
a good idea. No doubt, the Congress' record on
secularism is dire, but is there any other national party which has a better record?
Indeed, the BJP the only other national party
--doesnt even like the idea of secularism and
would be happy drop the term from the constitution if it had its way. Have Muslims ever
gresss 'electoral secularism', a term used by a

former Muslim MP to reject the Congress.
If the Congress was able to make use of Muslims
in the name of secularism it was because the
Muslim leadership was willing to play ball with
it. There was a quid pro quo between Muslim
leaders and the Congress whereby in return for
delivering Muslim votes they were rewarded
with plum jobs, party tickets and nominations
to the Rajya Sabha.
Granted, Muslims have had reason to feel let
down by the Congress but in their desire to spite
it, let them not cut off their own nose.
Now, to the catalogue of Congress sins: corruption, mid governance, arrogance, dynastic rule
and abuse of the idea of secularism which alienated both Muslims and Hindus.
There are elements of truth to all this, but the
popular narrative of an irredeemably corrupt,
dysfunctional, dynastic monster from which the
country must be liberated (BJP's "Congressmukt" Bharat) is a disingenuous caricature of a
party which may have gone out of steam for now
but has a history of some very solid achievement. Achievements on which the foundation of
modern India stands.
In a more historically conscious society this
would have been seen as an attempt at rewriting history but this being India, we are more in
the realm of myth making than getting history
right.
However, the point is not to enumerate Congress party's achievements or defend its policies.
trys political destiny to a combination of divisive and pop-up 'secular' forces with no national
opposition to check them a good idea?
Think about it.
Admittedly, it got things wrong once too often

but it has been duly punished for it. Before we
throw out the baby with the bathtub lets ponder
over its implications. Is handing over the coun-
AAP wins but it wont be an easy ride
AAP sweeps Delhi by its feet, but BJP and
Modi wont make life easy for Kejriwal

S Murlidharan, February 10, 2015
AP's victory in Delhi Assembly elections

will definitely catapult the fledgling
party into the national center stage with
non-Congress parties likely to woo it assiduously to take on the BJP both at the national and
the state level. However, AAPs real strength
will be challenged soon in days to come. The
BJP, smarting from the defeat, will try its best
to wreck the AAP government on every front,
which shouldnt be too difficult given the glorified municipality status of the Delhi government.
The BJP government in Haryana will definitely

up the ante and refuse to give water to Delhi on
some pretext or the other. Delhi produces practically nothing except services and the notable
exceptions of pollution and noise. It is dependent on other states for its supply of water, power, vegetables and just about everything needed
in the humdrum of daily life.
Full statehood to Delhi is now certainly not on
the cards because doing that under the AAP
regime would be suicidal for the BJP. BJP is
already being pilloried for committing several
blunders, including not holding the Delhi polls
while still flush from the Lok Sabha victory, and
it is not likely to commit one more by offering
a prize that would make the AAP preen with
pride.
With the status of a rump government, AAP

would find it extremely difficult to deliver on its
manifesto. Law and order is a serious issue in
Delhi but the AAP government would be practically fighting crime and disorder with its hands
tied behind its back. It is not as if the BJP would
actively connive with criminals and lumpen elements, but at the same time it will not make life
easy for its incipient national arch rival AAP.
Instead, its will attempt to make the AAP stew
in its own juices. Delhi will be kept under the
vice-like grip of the Centre not only to spite
AAP but ostensibly because the nations capital
should be under the central government. There
is considerable merit in that argument because
a nations capital plays host to foreign dignitaries and guides foreign investments besides being the harbinger of happenings in other states.
Full statehood being granted to Delhi would be
used by Kejriwal to embarrass the BJP government at the Centre especially in the eyes of foreign governments that are warming upto Modi.
In short, BJP would not give Kejriwal the stick
to beat it with. Instead it would do everything
in its power to project the fledgling party in bad
light so that AAPs success in retrospect turns
out to be a flash in the pan.
The question is also whether the AAP will be
able to replicate its success in other places. The
answer to this seminal question will depend on
what the AAP does in the days ahead. It has to
go for an image makeover. It is cast in a rebellious mould that endears itself to youth in particular, who carries no baggage and celebrates
novelty.
But in the long run, it should have a positive
agenda that goes beyond subsidies. Electricity
tariff cannot be halved across the board unless
the government is ready to empty its coffers.
Who knows it might do the unthinkable by
inviting FDI in retail, if only to rein in vegetable

and food prices, what with foreign retail chains
enjoying a formidable reputation in setting up
cold storage and preventing wastage.
The AAP has a long way to go in a country
where caste, parochialism and other considerations still rule the roost. Regional parties still
hold sway. In Bihar, AAP would find it extremely difficult to dislodge caste-based parties and
politics. Delhi may be inhabited by people from
every corner of the nation but it is by no means
a microcosm of India. Bihar would soon prove
Delhi was a one off.
Why Arvind Kejriwal has the right to be
very scared of Delhi election results

Sandipan Sharma, February 10, 2015
ew Delhi: The AAP got it absolutely

right during the election campaign
when it raised two slogans: Paanch
Saal, Kejriwal; and BJP half, Congress saaf.
With the results now indicating just three seats

for the BJP and none for the Congress, it can be
said that the voter has reduced Narendra Modis
party to half of the Congress tally (8) in 2013.
In a repeat of the Lok Sabha verdict, the principal opposition party has not even won ten
percent of the seats. It may have to depend on
Arvind Kejriwals mercy for the leader of the opposition slot. Rahul Gandhi, who was denied the
privilege in the Lok Sabha, must be smiling.
So, as in life, what goes around comes around
in politics. And this is the biggest lesson of the
election for the BJP and also for Kejriwal.
It is very scary, I am afraid because of the big
verdict. The BJP and the Congress suffered because of their hubris; if we repeat their mistake
the people of Delhi will teach us a lesson after
five years, Kejriwal said, during his victory
speech at the party headquarters.
Kejriwal has got it absolutely right. But he may
be making a mistake for believing that voters
now take five years to become angry with a gov-
ernment, especially if they choose it with lots of

expectations and hopes.
The people of Delhi have overturned the verdict of 2014 in just eight months, bringing the
BJP from its high of 46 percent votes to a low of
just 33 percent. If more than 13 percent voters
have moved away from the BJP, it is clearly a
sign that they are disenchanted with the Modi
sarkar. The BJP has not just been defeated; it
has been humiliated in Delhi.
It can be argued that eight months is too small a
duration to judge the performance of the government. The Delhi mandate can imply that voters have become extremely impatient and they
want results at the speed of light. But Modi is
not the first one to have suffered a precipitous
decline.
When Modi had completed six months in
power, Firstpost had pointed out that the euphoria around him was almost similar to the
hype around Rajiv Gandhis first few months
in power. But Rajiv became unpopular within
just a few months because he failed to live up to
peoples expectations and his own image.
Similarly, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav
had registered landslide victories just a few
years ago in their states. But they started losing
popular support within a few months. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP got
a massive mandate in 2013, even a beleaguered
Congress is showing healthy signs of revival.
Clearly, Kejriwal will have to hit the ground
running. He cant afford to wait for five years to
be taught a lesson. In Indian politics even five
months is a long time and he is starting on the
right note with the fear of voters in his heart.
But, the bigger learnings are for the BJP. According to reports, soon after the exit polls
indicated a massive win for the AAP, Amit Shah
held a meeting with several top leaders of the

party. This was, incidentally, the first time he
bothered to even consult his colleagues in the
party. From the dictatorial hubris of paradropping Kiran Bedi on the cadre, Shah came down
to terra firma earth by realising the importance
of internal democracy. This is a good beginning
for the party, where the Modi-Shah duo has so
far been taking decisions after just speaking to
each other on the phone.
The 54 percent vote sharealmost unprecedented in the history of our first-past-the-post
systemof the AAP would also force Modi to
ponder over how the party of a humble chaiwalah has been rejected by almost two-third of
the voters in Delhi.
One, ask for paanch saal, but start showing

results in paanch months.
Two, seek votes with humility on the basis of
your agenda and manifesto; not by talking
about your naseeb.
Three, some suits can cost more than Rs 10
lakh. Next time somebody gifts one, auction it
for a public cause.
Four, learn to take everybody along, including
Ramzaadas and the kind that irritate Sadhvi
Niranjan Jyoti.
Five, never ask voters to send a politician to a
jungle. You never know when you may have to
invite him home for a cup of tea, and pour it in
his cup, just like for Obama.
Six, learn to listen to critics. Not every opinion
poll or a critic is bazaaru.
Delhi is almost a microcosm of India. It has

people of all castes, communities, religions,
states and socio-cultural identities. It is a perfect sample for conducting a survey of the mood
of the nation. As Modi rightly said at a rally recently, what Delhi wants, India also wants; what
is in Delhis heart is also in Indias heart.
So, here is what Delhi is saying about what is in
the heart of India:
Delusion posing as reality: AAPs biggest

challenge is to deliver on its manifesto
ditor's note: This article has been republished given the Aam Aadmi Party is
on its way to an overwhelming victory
in the Delhi Assembly elections.
If there is one thing you can be sure of in the
Delhi assembly polls of 7 February, it is this: it
will not depend on how much effort a party has
put into its manifesto.
Election trends usually pivot around one or two

central issues. The micro-casting of small benefits to every segment of the electorate is hardly
relevant. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was
probably decided on two basic issues the aura
of competent leadership personified by Narendra Modi (in contrast with the effete Manmohan
Singh and his bumbling UPA government), and
the promise of development and achche din.
The Congress party had, in fact, come up with
a better-crafted manifesto. The BJP was the
last to come up with one, and that too when the
election process was well underway. The BJP
manifesto had no impact on the result. Beyond
the media, no one gave it much importance. The
BJP still won.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fallen into the
trap of believing that offering 1,000 promises
is better than focusing on the one or two things
that really matter in an election. It has built up
an entire laundry list of what people from various parts of Delhi want and aggregated these
into a manifesto.
The BJP, perhaps wisely, has abandoned the
idea of launching a full-fledged manifesto,
though a vision document is certainly planned.
On the other hand, AAP has given its manifesto
the full treatment. It is all things to all people,
and has such lofty aims that it is essentially delusion posing as vision.
If elected, AAP tells us, it will demand full statehood for Delhi, seek control of the Delhi Police
(now under the home ministry), and run the
city-state with the help of nearly 3,000-3,500
mohalla sabhas (each comprising around 5001,000 households). It will build Delhis own
power plant, create 500 new schools and 20
new colleges, quadruple the number of secondary and tertiary public hospital beds, recruit
4,000 doctors and 15,000 paramedics, build
two lakh public toilets, invest in public transport, and generally abolish contract labour
everywhere.
In other words, Arvind Kejriwal plans to build
a socialist paradise in Delhi at huge cost. And
yes, he will do what he did the last time in his
49-day government: give every household 700
litres of free water and cut electricity tariffs by
50 percent. And, of course, he will legislate the
draconian Jan Lokpal bill so that the corrupt
are reined in.
In a 42-page manifesto, the question of how all
this extravaganza is going to be funded gets almost no mention. The only indication that AAP
will somehow try and marry finite resources
with infinite promises comes towards the end,
where it solves the equation with two glib statements.
First, the manifesto claims (unconvincingly)
that the common theme across all policy inCopyright 2012 Firstpost
terventions is the following motto: big change

without big spending. It is good to know that
power plants, hospitals and schools can be built
without much moolah.
Then comes the humble admission: However,
we know our limitations, and realise that the
only way to deliver our promises is to look for
innovative solutions, spend efficiently and raise
revenue.
Ah, finally some realism. The only hint of an
innovative solution turns out to be the discovery of a hidden goldmine (landmine?). AAP
apparently has discovered about 200 acres of
unused land with the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board in Kasturba Niketan, Sawda
Ghewra and Balaswa, which could be used
for building housing for the middle and lower
classes.
Well, it is unlikely that AAP will find too many
of these hidden tracts of free land any time
soon. We have to wait for the party to come to
power if that is what is in store for Delhi-ites
on 10 February to learn what other innovative
ideas it can come up with.
However, a cursory look at the some of the
more important things AAP has promised or
demanded (from the central government) shows
that beyond the promises, not much has been
thought through.
For example, AAP wants control of the Delhi
police. Lets assume, the centre agrees to hand
it over. But will Delhi be able to bear the annual
cost of over Rs 5,000 crore to run this police
force, when its overall budget is just Rs 36,700
crore, a significant chunk of which is already
being devolved to the New Delhi Municipal
Corporation, and the three constituents of the
Municipal Corporation of Delhi? It is unlikely
the centre will both hand over control of the police and the money to run it. Kejriwal will have
to find his own funds.
Second, Kejriwal and AAP airily talk about
creating over 3,000 mohalla sabhas in order
to devolve decision-making to the bottom of
the pyramid. But can the state do this without consulting its own municipal bodies, all of
which are run by the BJP? A significant part of
the sabhas will come under the jurisdiction of

the three BJP-run corporations, and they surely
cannot be kept out of the decision-making.
These corporations were elected in 2012, and
have an elected life till 2017.
Third, AAP talks of setting up its own power
plant to take care of the peak load of 6,200 mw
in the national capital. Delhi city clearly cannot
house this plant, for no urban centre can run
a coal-fired unit within its domain for fear of
pollution. a gas-based unit will push up power
costs. This means the power plant will have to
come up in some other state which has the coal
reserves to support it. Reliance Power in Mumbai gets a part of its power from Dahanu. But
Dahanu is part of the same state (Maharashtra).
Delhi will need the cooperation of some other
state to house its power plant, which will supply
power not to that state, but to Delhi. Given the
acrimony with which Kejriwal has been handling all political parties, one wonders how he
is going to get these permissions. Or the money
to build the power plant, if he is going to halve
power tariffs, an issue on which the discoms will
surely go to court.
Fourth, AAP wants to build lots of houses for
the poor, and it will also need land for Kejriwals
various public projects (from 200,000 toilets to
500 schools to hospitals). But the party is opposed to changes in the Land Acquisition Act
that the NDA government has proposed to make
land easier to acquire. Delhi needs land from all
surrounding states, and this job is done by the
centre using the Delhi Development Authority
(DDA).
It is difficult to see how the centre is going to
hand over DDA to Kejriwal. Of course, he can
start dharnas on each of his demands for full
statehood, for control of the police, for ownership of the DDA, etc but then he is likely to
fall into the same trap of being seen as an anarchist who does not govern and is forever hitting
the streets.
Kiran Bedi has an easier task of getting these
things done with the help of the centre.
Fifth, the mohalla sabhas could well become
unmanageable if they are dominated by rogue
political elements. It is not easy for ordinary citCopyright 2012 Firstpost
izens to spare the kind of time and effort needed

every month to discuss every issue concerning
their locality. Check how many housing society
members even turn up for an annual general
meeting. If enough public-spirited people are
not there to manage the mohalla sabhas, they
will come to be dominated by political or fringe
elements, from Maoists to local toughs to party
workers. Empowering 3,000-3,500 mohalla
sabhas may sound nice and democratic, but this
needs the development of a citizen spirit first.
Delhi, as an collective of people from different
parts of India, has little of that right now. One
can also visualise party politics vitiating their
functioning and party involvement is more
than likely if funds are going to be devolved to
such sabhas. If other parties see AAP activists
dominating these sabhas, they will muscle in
too. The last thing we need is politicking and
street aggression going down to the local mohalla level.
So, forget the manifesto. The Delhi election is

probably going to be decided on one or two key
issues, not the raft of promises made by Kejriwal.
One key issue could be whether electing an AAP
government will end up creating a permanent
atmosphere of strife with the centre for the next
five years. Paanch Saal Kejriwal may be fine for
some citizens, but not Paanch Saal Dharna or
Paanch Saal Kenrda-Rajya takkar.
The problem with the AAP manifesto is that it is
not achievable if AAP builds itself up as an antiBJP, anti-centre party. This may weigh heavily
in voters minds even if their heart is sometimes
with AAP.
Sixth, the economic part of the manifesto promises one thing that is really welcome: freedom
from inspector/raid raj, and the end of red tape.
Kejriwal's promise of making it possible to set
up a business or trade in one week will be revolutionary, if it happens. But he did not forget
to promise the lowest VAT rate in India in five
years' time. One wonders whether he expects a
cut in VAT rates to boost revenues by enough to
pay for some of his grandiose social spending
plans. Not impossible, but unlikely. What has
actually happened in Delhi is the hollowing out
of domestic small-scale manufacturing, with
manufacturers essentially becoming importbased resellers. They buy their stuff from China
and merely label them as theirs. Manufacturing
employment is falling in Delhi.
Aaptard wars: What Kejriwals supporters
can learn from Modi and his bhakts

Sandip Roy, February 11, 2015
APtard and Proud!!!
Thats what Raghu Ram of Roadies fame

tweeted out accompanied by a beaming picture
as the steamroller verdict from Delhi rolled in.
tous fall in the use of the hashtag #AAPtard.

Only Dr. Subramanian Swamy seems to be
gamely keeping the social media battle going
tweeting out Aaptard with even more gusto.
As in garv se kaho, hum AAPtard hain.

The favourite term of abuse for AAP supporters
is now striking back, being reclaimed as a badge
of honour.
In fact if theres been any immediately measurable impact of the great electoral victory in Delhi
its been in the abuse-meter on social media.
@SonaliRanade tweets Twitter records precipi-
Now thats more than a little self-centred to assume that AAP supporters days revolve around
trolling the redoubtable Dr. Swamy but its also
not surprising that the Internet will become the
Ground Zero for the gloating fiesta.
One of the great fallouts of the electoral battles

of the last couple of years from Delhi 2013
to Lok Sabha 2014 has been the transformation of social media and comment boards into a
Kurukshetra of sorts where each side competes
in laying on the vitriol.
Now the fruits of victory, especially victory
beyond imagination, taste that much sweeter
when hashtagged on the Internet and rubbed
into the handles of the other side.
But if anything this could be a moment for
Arvind Kejriwal to learn and reinforce one of
the great failings of Narendra Modi. While Modi
cannot have been expected to be the moral
policeman of his most obstreperous followers,
he could have led by example when it came to
laying down standards of decorum and civility.
And most importantly pulling up those in his
own base who came up short.
While it hardly behooves a senior leader like
Swamy to routinely use AAPtard in his tweets,
Modi and his associates did not cover themselves with glory by not inviting Arvind Kejriwal
on Republic Day either. 49-day-wonder or not,
he was the erstwhile CM of Delhi and deserved
an invitation.
As Uttam Sengupta points out on Outlook,
Kiran Bedi said if Kejriwal wanted an invite
he needed to join the BJP. Amit Shah mocked
him saying Kejriwal would be invited to Bedis

swearing-in ceremony as CM. How sweet it
must feel for Kejriwal to now turn the tables and
invite Modi to his own swearing in instead.
Sengupta writes, The Prime Minister can
scarcely claim that he was unaware of the
controversy. He would have risen in people's
esteem if he had intervened, tendered an apology to Kejriwal and ensured that an invitation
was extended to him. But he did nothing of the
kind.
This curious silence of Modi hurts him over
and over again as he tries to build a statesmanlike image. Election campaigns are ugly and if
the BJP went overboard with Mufflerman and
Upadravi-gotra ads and calling him a liar,
Naxalite chor and a back stabber holding
a world record in losing deposits their opponents gave back as good as they got. AAP put up
posters with Kejriwal as imandar and Kiran
Bedi as avsarvadi (opportunist) after the BJP
dared AAP to use Bedis poster on their campaign materials. The BJP promptly put out a
booklet calling Kejriwal the betrayer.
This is only to be expected. In election campaigns where candidates do not actually have
to formally debate the issues, a poster war of
insults and screaming heads on television talk
shows are what passes for debate.
Modi is a pugnacious campaigner and his mocking jibes worked well for him on the Lok Sabha
campaign trail as he launched broadsides at
the shehzada and AK-49. But as PM he
would have done well to dampen the enthusiasm of some of his more truculent followers
as they amped up the insult war against their
opponents. Otherwise now by the logic of minister Giriraj Singh, much of Delhis electorate
should be buying themselves one-way tickets to
Pakistan. Its not Giriraj Singhs over-the-top
pronouncement that stands out as does Modis
lukewarm reaction to it. If anything, he just distances himself from the unpleasantness without
actually cracking down on it. It creates an abiding impression of a man who can wilfully shut
his eyes to the excesses of his fans while trying
to be above it all.
Kejriwal has an opportunity to be different
in victory. Gandhi was famous for adamantly

calling off agitations if he felt his followers had
gone against his principles. Kejriwal who draws
much inspiration from Gandhi could take that
leaf out of his book and really lead by example.
His remarks after his victory were promising.
"Its scary. This huge mandate begets responsibility in its wake. I would like to request all party workers to remain humble and not indulge in
the slightest bit of pride," Kejriwal said.
The coming days will show if the party workers
will indeed pay heed or whether these are just
empty words that will be lost as the party enjoys
unbridled power in Delhi. Perhaps its a good
omen he will take his oath on 14 February otherwise known as Valentines Day. Love will be in
the air. Perhaps some of the love bug will infect
the trolling grounds of social media as well.
Dear AAP: Landslide Delhi election
victory does not a national party make

Sandip Roy, February 11, 2015
eta come home. All is forgiven. And here

is a giant red carpet to welcome you
back.
That's the resounding message the Delhi

electorate has given to prodigal son Arvind
Kejriwal.A chastened Kejriwal spent much of
his Lok Sabha campaign on the defensive about
his brief 49-day encounter with power and
responsibility. Now that the electorate has given
him another chance -- and how -- Kejriwal is
rightfully scared of what they expect him to do
with it.
Here's, however, what AAP shouldn't do with

this magical second chance: Try and become the
next Congress party.
While Kejriwal has shown no signs of imagining himself as the next Modi -- a point he was
careful to make on the trail but refusing to take
the PM head on -- but AAP could easily imagine
itself to be a new alternative to the Congress.
More so given given that the grand old party
seems to be on a suicidal mission of self-extinction. It is hard to imagine how a party can
recover from a grand total of zero seats.
The Congress won only 44 seats in the last election but it had about 19.3 percent of the vote
share. The BJP won 282 with just 31 percent
of the vote. While the Congress and its leadership stands discredited, it does not mean that
the values that the party stood for have lost all
currency. The great albatross around its neck
remains the reluctant prince at its helm. Since
that handicap does not show any signs of disappearing, the chances for any miraculous recovery in the Congress fortunes seem bleak.
But one party's blight could be easily seen as
another party's gain. A populist party like the
Aam Aadmi Party preaching a mixed gospel of
anti-corruption, transparency and subsidies
for the poor could aim to occupy the Congress
vacuum.It would be easy to think that if displacing Congress could deliver such a Godzilla-sized
victory in Delhi, what that 19.3 percent would
bring AAP in the rest of the country.
Surely then it is tempting, as pundits suggest, to
see AAP as the new Congress, a version 2.0 that
updates Indian liberalism for the 21st century,
wresting it out of the hands of the Gandhis.
Long before the Lok Sabha elections, Lord
Meghnad Desai, while predicting the decimation of the Congress Party, had said in an interview The Aam Aadmi Party will become Congress Mark 2 non-dynastic, modern, slightly
left of centre, bit of Gandhian heritage in the
topi, and a younger party. Therein could lie a
tempting way forward for AAP.
Perhaps but to don that avatar over the next five
years would be a Varanasi-sized blunder.
AAP has been given a chance to build a prototype of the kind of state government Kejriwal
has been promising people-oriented, secularminded, attentive to the needs of the little guy,
honest, clean and efficient, not in the pockets of
big business. This in itself promises to be a great
task -- as Mamata Banerjee has discovered in
Bengal.
She too had some of the same left-of-centre
populist rhetoric that AAP has employed successfully in Delhi. She also succeeded in poaching a lot of Congress voters and legislators into
her kitty. But once in government, Didi flailed.
She needs the industrialists and investors who
could be demonised as fat cats during an election campaign and has been wooing them with
mixed results.
One could see the entire Saradha debacle as a
commentary on the sorry state of Bengals economy that a chit fund company could become so
powerful and so enmeshed in the states political and cultural echelons. And let's not forget,
Mamata too once dreamed of national domination, of turning the Trinamool party into a rival
of the BJP, much as Mayawati did when BSP
was riding high.
AAP and Kejriwal would be foolish to be swayed
by that pipe dream.
Sagarika Ghose writes (AAP) is Delhis regional
party, it is to Delhi what the Shiv Sena was once
to Mumbai. AAPs anti-VIP rhetoric is as much
a unique Delhi phenomenon as the Senas antioutsider rhetoric was in Mumbai.
That makes AAP a curious beast a regional
party wearing a national partys clothes. Its
been easy to not recognise AAP's Delhi-centric
identity this because a regional party is usually
marked by some chest-thumping regional chauvinism. Whether its AIADMK or Trinamool or
Shiv Sena, all are founded on a certain bedrock
of regional pride. AAP is actually the opposite.

Its never played the local card, or spoken specifically as a Delhi party, and has instead articulated the city's concerns in the broadest terms
possible. A rhetoric of governance that speaks to
voters across the nation.
And that's just fine as long as AAP realises that
its national appeal does not make it a national
party, at least, not yet.
Arvind Kejriwal has been given a very rare
chance in politics. His victory in 2013 as a
fledgling political party was historic and now his
return from the ashes so quickly is equally historic. But to not botch it again, (and the BJP will
be waiting in the wings very eager to trip him
up) he will have to ensure he does not bite off
more than he can chew. And the first lesson will
be for the party to look long and hard at itself in
the mirror. It may have got the Congress votes,
but its not quite the grand old party yet.
Delhi is in its grasp but India door ast.
Ready, set, slow: Can AAP avoid the

pitfalls that come with absolute power?
Mahesh Vijaypurkar, February 11, 2015
t wasnt a mere undercurrent but a wave

that propelled the Aam Aadmi Party into
the Delhi Assembly.
All types of clichs have been used to describe

AAP's victory, which has not only seen the
decimation of BJP and the Congress, but left the
law-making body without even the semblance
of an Opposition. These 63 out of 70 seats is
a proportion higher than the BJPs in the Lok
Sabha. No doubt this makes for euphoria. But
this should not lead to hubris as a characteristic
of the David-like party.
tial poker player, and likes to serve his revenge

cold.
Since Delhi is about half a state it will be dependent on the Centre for most things land,
revenue, law and order etc so some tact would
help. Of course, Modi will have to understand
that that AAP won on a positive vote and be
cautious, avoiding playing any Centre versus
Delhi state game.
It is possible that AAP's scale of victory may
embolden it to be reckless and that is precisely
what needs to be resolutely avoided.
It has to see several amber lights on the path,
and this is not a tongue-in-cheek reference to
the lal bathis. It is the caution light so that with
a majority of the kind bestowed on it, the party
avoids losing its head. With no place in the Assembly, both Congress and BJP can play opposition on the streets.
Here are a few of those amber lights:
The mandate has dispelled the notion that

AAPs constituency was only the underbelly
and has shown that its voters come from across
classes. Why voters changed their preferences
so overwhelmingly after the sweep they allowed
the BJP is not an exhibition of voters fickleness but a strong nudge to Narendra Modi that
tangibles were not delivered in Delhi under
Presidents Rule. Voters are impatient and this
is something that AAP has to note.
No doubt Narendra Modi has gracefully called
Arvind Kejriwal to congratulate him and will
meet him for tea.
AAP should realise that while the prime minister is a decisive leader, he is also the quintessen-
Having a majority, much like the NTRs Telugu

Desham Party did when it came to power, can
be a tempting invitation for AAP to run amok.
NTR even became convenor of the united front.
Like Yogendra Yadav said on NDTV even as the
leads were rolling in, the government would
do well only to initially pluck the low-hanging
fruits like starting schools and hospitals which
were already sanctioned. Thereafter, opt for
sure-footed governance.
Nor, having created a space for itself mainly by
totally decimating the Congress, or successfully
combating the BJP in an unequal battle, should
the AAP consider itself the next opposition messiah across the country.
Given the support that flowed at least verbally
from JD(U), CPM, and Trinamool, the AAP
could be tempted into trying to join the leadership of a larger opposition alliance. It is coming
to power in Delhi is mainly because it contested

their kind of politics, not mere anti-Congressism.
The first thing to do is for the AAP Government

to reintroduce the Janlokpal Bill which the Congress had scuttled and BJP voted against, and
which led to the end of the AAP rule in 49 days.
This will set the cat amongst the pigeon across
the states and provide a new rallying point for
the AAP outside Delhi. AAP, which seeks to
reform politics, pitching the citizen against the
professional politician, shouldnt risk moving
out of this new paradigm.
People are unlikely to be satisfied with slow or
negligible delivery on promises. That is why
they punished Modi.
Arvind Kejriwal will have to learn ways to deliver quickly but not in a rush, at least cost,
because impatience among voters for securing
their due is getting stronger by the day. Modis
promises and the absence of felt outcomes may
have been one reason why the BJP was slaughtered. A measure of governance is the level of
satisfaction at the receiving end.
The election outcome points to the remarkable
rise in expectations of what governance ought
to be. Of quick relief from long-pending issues
like petty corruption, poor housing and abysmal
civic services, and other things that making an
individuals life miserable. Even these, apart
from ending the deep rooted hafta raj need to
be attended to over time. Mohalla Committee
sessions would have given the party a fair idea
of the gigantic task ahead.
Kejriwal has himself harped on the fact that

good governance is all about being honest in
intent and conduct. A Planning Commission or
Niti Ayog paper on any issue will mean nothing
to the people if it is poorly delivered. India has
never been short of schemes which touch every
section of the vast population, but the dissatisfaction is at how badly they are managed.
Naturally, Kejriwal and AAP have to deal with
a huge number of nuts and bolts before the
machinery starts to make an impact among the
people on a long term basis. When things have
to reach the lowest segments long deprived of
their rights, the work gets that much harder.
Neither of these leaders can have an excuse and
if they trot out one, they will surely be punished
by voters the next time they get a chance. It has
become a habit to fell the mighty.
In 2013, the lower strata of Delhi expressed
hopes in Kejriwal and voted in his favour; areas
with larger slum pockets or swaths? went
with the AAP. They now have a presence across
67 of the 70 constituencies which imply that
those in Lutyens Delhi have little appreciation
of the concerns of the vast population. Had it
been otherwise, there wouldnt have been a
need for an AAP. Voters would have then been
comfortable with BJP or even the Congress.
The just ended election has been a fight against
the entrenched ways of traditional politicians,
unchallenged till 2013. That is why the election
resonated across the country unlike any state
election normally would. It was, despite a legislative assembly of its own, has to be seen largely
as a citys municipality. The centre calls the
shots on most things. The Economist had once
likened its then chief minister Sheila Dikshit a
mayor.
The city which is a state, cannot ignore, as Dr
Mukulika Banerjee noted in a recent article
in The Guardian, those who keep Delhi running, working in the vast informal economy
that services the shiny coat of the beast. She is
an associate professor at the London School of
Economics and the author of Why India Votes?
This election has it has forced voters to choose
not just between one party and another, but also
between one kind of politics and another
Here is a long quote from her article (read

here):
So the stakes are big in this small election
because it has raised a fundamental question
what kind of politics do Indians want? Do they
desire a political establishment that caters to
the few who bob on the surface or do they want
a party that unashamedly prioritises the needs
of the majority below? A politics that cannot
account for 75% of their funding or one that aspires to total transparency? A politics that can
plaster the city with expensive advertisements
or one in which young people campaign with
flashmobs and songs? A politics of an electoral
juggernaut that demolishes everything in its
path or a groundswell of ordinary people that
raises David up to look Goliath in the eye?
In short, the seething underbelly cannot be told

that they will get their sewer lines and drinking
water and even their well-serviced toilets over
time but they had better be satisfied with the
stadia, the flyovers, the broad roads, and even
Lutyens Delhi.
In fact, the obscene display of power and grandness of Lutyens Delhi as a metaphor for power
and the deprivation elsewhere in the same city
should have incited a class war long ago. But
fortunately, this angst has been sublimated into
a possible election verdict.
AAP clearly wants to go national,

but it must prove itself in Delhi first
Sandipan Sharma, February 12, 2015
He has made too many promises; has no

experience so cant govern; will run away
again; the Centre will not cooperate; where
will he get the money from? are some of the
predictions and questions we have heard since
the AAP victory in Delhi.
His critics expect him to trip, destroy the
economy with his populist schemes and fight
incessantly with the Centre for funds and administrative issues. All this is possible and if so,
its results would be disastrous for Kejriwal and
Delhi.
tive politics which aims to be a principle and

principled force in national politics. At the same
time, we cannot do it overnight. The journey
from where we are to where we would like to be
is a journey that needs to be carefully charted
for which we have to sit down and decide on a
roadmap about electoral strategies in different
states. As of now, we have not decided on that
strategy, Yadav told The Hindu soon after the
Delhi verdict.
He said almost the same thing to The Times of
India on Wednesday but added five states his
party could be eyeingPunjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha.
It is clear that the party is keen to expand even
after its disastrous strategy of spreading itself
too thin, too fast in the Lok Sabha elections.
But this time it wants to do it gradually, over a
period of five years.
But, here is a question: What if Kejriwal succeeds as a chief minister? What if he lives up to
the expectations and silences his critics?
This question is important because of another
question that has been discussed since 10 February: Will AAP now go national?
Yogendra Yadav and his colleagues have made it
clear that the AAP has no intentions of remaining a regional party. It wants to scale up and
contest elections in other parts of the country.
The intent is clear, only the timing is to be decided.
In the long run, we see AAP as a party which
has a national purpose. It is not a regional
political party. It is an experiment in alterna-
Much of what the party does next will depend

on how it fares in Delhi. Its next major step will
be contingent on how fast it can fulfil some of
the headline promises it has made to the people. For just as the AAP went back to voters in
Delhi on the basis of Kejriwals performance
in 49 days, the party would now be banking on
the new governments success for its pan-India
push.
Winning an election is just a starting point in
democracy. The real test of a political party
is governance, which is where the AAP has a
questionable record. Though he has shown the
ability to win an election twice, Kejriwal has to
now prove that he also has a viable model of
governance that is different in its approach and
solutions.
Naturally, if he decides to launch a campaign
for other territories without securing his base,
it could be disastrous. Like Babar, who left
Ferghana to conquer Samarkand and lost both,
Kejriwal too may lose all his political capital.
This means, as Yadav pointed out, Kejriwal is

unlikely to bite the bait of Bihar, where elections are just a few months away; or respond
to the Trinamool Congress flirtatious gesture
of unilateral support. For the next few months
his focus will only be on delivering some of the
promises in his manifesto.
Without denying the importance of first delivering in Delhi, it is not difficult to see why AAP
is eyeing other states. In the history of India,
except for the last Moghuls, no ruler remained
confined to just Delhi. Unlike many other states,
Delhi is a microcosm of India and the choices
its people make are indeed a pointer to what
is happening in the rest of the country. So, the
AAP is justified in taking the Delhi model to
other states, especially where the Congress is
the only existing option against the BJP and its
allies.
Politics can never be uni-polar. If the Congress
continues to remain irrelevant, people will look
for a suitable alternative in BJP-ruled states.
It would be nave to think that the AAP will be
reluctant to step into this vacuum.
The AAPs next big move could be in Punjab,
where it emerged as the second-largest party in
the 2014 elections, winning four seats and giving a tough fight to the Akali Dal in four other
places. Assembly elections in Punjab are due
in 2017 so Kejriwal has two full years to work
just on his Delhi agenda. If Kejriwal manages to
impress Delhi with his performance and if the
party does well in Punjab, it will be ready for an
all-India leap.
social media to their benefit. If it already hasnt,

the jhadoo will soon become a recognizable
symbol across India.
The partys biggest headache will be to find
identifiable faces in other states, especially
those with large rural populations where urban,
suave leaders find it difficult to connect with the
masses. In Rajasthan, for instance, when the
party contested the Lok Sabha polls, it couldnt
find a single leader who had the potential to
become its face in the state. Taking on a mass
leader like Vasundhara Raje will be a huge challenge in the absence of a popular face.
The BJPs failure in Delhi has shown that a
popular local leader is indispensable. You may
have a hugely popular national leader like
Narendra Modi but when it comes to assembly
elections, voters relate only to someone who
identifies with their problems and is capable of
addressing them. To expect Kejriwal to help the
AAP win an election in Rajasthan would be tantamount to repeating the Modi disaster in Delhi.
We will get more hints of Kejriwals future plans
when his cabinet is announced. If he decides to
have a deputy CM, it will be a clear signal that
he is grooming a successor in Delhi and eyeing a
national role for himself.
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshiram had

once said that a party needs at least three elections to succeed. Pehla harne ke liye, doosra
harane ke liye aur teesra jeetne ke liye (first one
to lose, second to make someone else lose and
third to win), he had said.
But in the age of 24X7 TV, internet and mobile
connectivity, the gestation period of parties
has become shorter. Today it is much easier to
spread the ideology and agenda of a political
party to the farthest corners in very little time.
AAP has the advantage of being in Delhi; its
leaders have the ability to use traditional and
Careful what you ask for: Kejriwals full

Delhi statehood demand could backfire
e careful what you ask for, because you

just might get it. Mohammed Ali Jinnah
demanded a separate Pakistan for Muslims - and he got one, a "moth-eaten" one, to
use his own evocative expression.
automatically means that Delhi has to be bifurcated if one part of it is to receive full statehood.
There is no way any central government will allow a state to control its offices, establishments,
cantonments and services.
So the first implication of Kejriwals demand
for statehood is bifurcation. And by bifurcation we mean not just geographical bifurcation,
but bifurcation of all the services provided to
the citizens of united Delhi: the police, the land
development authority, the water-works, everything.
Arvind Kejriwal is perfectly within his rights to

demand full statehood for Delhi. And there is no
reason to deny it to him. Why should Delhi not
get powers what other states automatically get?
But Kejriwal should also know that, like Jinnah,
he will get a moth-eaten Delhi. If he understands that, then Narendra Modi should give it
to him.
Like Beelzebub's famous quote in Milton's
Paradise Lost, Kejriwal may well reckon that it
is "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven."
Not that Delhi is any kind of heaven right now
for anybody except the Lutyens elite, but it is
less of a hell because it gets more taxpayer resources than any other city in India.
Here's why full statehood means a moth-eaten
Delhi, and why Kejriwal's party may also be the
wrong one to run it, unless he changes course:
Delhi is by and large a city-state. But it is also
the capital of India. Since it is not possible for
the central government to come under a state
government's administrative jurisdiction, it
So the Delhi police will have to be split between

the new full state of Delhi and a central autonomous mini-state that will constitute the national
capital (which will house all cantonments and
central offices, including the country's president, the Prime Minister, the MPs, the ministers
and the bureaucracy). It will also mean splitting the Delhi Development Authority, and a
new water sharing agreement involving the two
residual entities, among other things.
To be sure, some kind of bifurcation already exists - but it is horizontal in nature - with police
and land being run by the centre, and municipal
and other services by the state. What Kejriwal
is demanding will merely make the bifurcation vertical - a separation of centre from state,
geographically, resource-wise and emotionally.
Kejriwals full-state Delhi will not be todays
Delhi.
But there are other implications of demanding
full statehood that Kejriwal should be aware of
before asking for the moon and sixpence.
First, as a full state of the Indian Union, Delhi
will no longer be eligible to live off the central
government's current subsidies. The rest of
India can pay to run a central government, but
not another state government, including its police. Delhi is India's richest state, and thus has
to rely on its own resources for growth and to

provide services to its citizens.
Second, apart from Delhis value-added taxes,
the primary revenue earners for a city-state
are taxation of services, entry, exit and parking
charges on vehicles, and property. Land rents,
annual property taxes, and vehicle taxes will
have to go up when Delhi achieves statehood.
This is because in future, Delhi will have to pay
for its own law and order costs, including policemen. More money will also have to be raised
for investing in public transport. The Delhi
Metro will have to charge more or be subsidised
by the state.
Third, city-states cannot be traditional manufacturing centres as they will be unviable and
polluting. Cities tend to attract higher wages
than non-urban centres, and this automatically means only high-value adding, automated
manufacturing or non-polluting industries and
services can be set up there. But these kinds of
jobs need skilled manpower and a knowledge
base, which means attracting high-income
knowledge workers and not the hoi-polloi of the
rest of India. But these are precisely the people
(the Poorvanchalis, the minorities) who lifted
Kejriwals mandate from a sedate majority to an
overwhelming one. The underclass has a bigger claim on his resources than the middle and
upper classes but it is the latter who will build
the new Delhi.
Fourth, city-states need different governance
structures compared to normal states with a
mix of the rural and urban. No successful citystate can attract talent and skilled workers without running a very efficient, corporatised form
of government. But Kejriwal has been talking

just the opposite: empowering "gram" and "mohalla sabhas that can realistically decide only
things like where to store the garbage or stop a
neighbourhood brothel. Mohalla sabhas cannot
become the driving structures of an urbanised,
knowledge-driven future state which may continue to receive a huge influx of underfed, illiterate, and unskilled or semi-skilled migrants. It
is a recipe for chaos.
Delhi will have to think of a corporatised and
top-down governance structure like Singapore
or Shanghai. It needs a CEO which Kejriwal
can surely provide, but this is not what he has
been talking about. The only city-states that
work are those that can centralise and optimise
decision-making powers and deliver world quality public services, especially in a super-diverse
city like Delhi. Delhis babu culture is particularly unsuited for a city-state, and mid-level
babus voted for Kejriwal. Is he going to take
them on?
Fifth, statehood for Delhi means Kejriwal will
be a net buyer of power and water from outside.
This is already the case, but if power and water
has to come from elsewhere (other states) and
shared with the central administrative district
run by the home ministry, it cannot be subsidised. Delhi can set up its own power plants,
but these will have to be based on clean gas or
renewable sources - both more expensive. Coalbased power will have to be bought from other
states - at market rates.
Full statehood means Kejriwal will have to
abandon his dreams of cutting tariffs for power
and giving free water to all and sundry. A rich
city-state can afford to pay, and it should.
Sixth, as a city-state which is hemmed in by
three other states, Delhi will ultimately run out
of land. The benefits of Delhi's sprawling growth
will go to the contiguous states of Haryana, UP
and Rajasthan - as it already does - and Delhi's
residential growth will have to come vertically.
This means Delhi has to think Singapore, not
spatial growth.
All of this can be done. It all depends on whether Kejriwal wants to run a city or a state.
I am the last one to believe city-states cannot

work. They do. But it needs a different mindset
to run the mindset of a corporate CEO, not a
populist rabble-rouser. City-states are capable
of generating enormous value for the whole hinterland if they are run well and autonomously
(read what Firstpost wrote about the subject
earlier, in the context of Mumbai, another
mega-city that needs full statehood to flower).
So if Arvind Kejriwal wants full statehood for
Delhi, he has to rethink and reboot his party
and his own approach to governance. It would
also be a welcome shift.
All hail Arvind Kejriwal, CEO-Mayor of the citystate of Delhi?
The Twitter verdict
Delhi results: Three charts to show

how the election played out on Twitter
esterday AAP and Arvind Kejriwal won

the Delhi election with a historic 67 seats
out of 70, and decimated all opposition.
While BJP managed to scrape only 3 seats, even
BJP's CM candidate Kiran Bedi lost from the
party stronghold of Krishna Nagar, The Congress was wiped out, winning zero seats.
Let's not forget that Arvind Kejriwal began the

election day on Twitter by putting out a video
he had done with the comedy group The Viral
Fever which got retweeted nearly 3.1k times.
The other tweet by Kejriwal that won all hearts
was a picture of him hugging his wife Sunita.
The tweet was retweeted 6.2k times and got
nearly 8.4k favourites.
On Twitter, the Delhi election generated massive interest with trends like #KejriwalonTVF,
#DelhiDecides,#AAPSweep, #AAPStorm all
dominating. A day after the election result,
#AAPSweep is still one of the top trends. According to Twitter's iOS app, #AAPSweep has
seen 131.1K tweets, while #DelhiDecides has
seen over 93.5k tweets on the site.
Twitter has also provided a breakdown of the
reactions to the three main events that were the
topic of the discussion on Twitter: namely AAP's
win, BJP's loss and Congress' wipeout.
According to Twitter, "AAP victory" saw a total
of 3,47,760 tweets on the day of the election
itself. It hit a peak at around 10.30 am with
nearly 940 tweets discussing the AAP's imminent win.
Check out an interactive chart below which marks the buzz around AAP's win on Twitter. If you
look at the chart, you can see that as it became clearer that Kejriwal and AAP had done the impossible, the chatter kept growing.
The second big event on Twitter was of course the BJP loss. While exit polls had showed the BJP
presenting a tough challenge to the AAP , the election results completely contradicted them. The
BJP just managed to get 3 seats and on Twitter, nearly 2,83,988 tweets ended up discussing this
loss.
The tweets per minute peak was at 11.30 am with nearly 794 tweets talking about this loss. The
BJP's loss was perhaps made worse by its CM candidate Kiran Bedi making statements like, "I
think I haven't lost, I did my best, I would lose if I hadn't done my best, BJP will assess."
She also said that the "party (BJP) didn't ask for any money from me, accepted me way I am,
thankful for all respect and love I've received by party & leadership."
The Congress washout in the Delhi polls was also a topic of interest with nearly 3,47,760 tweets
discussing the topic. The peak was at 10.30 am with 364 tweets per minutes.
For the Congress, winning zero seats was one of the most humiliating defeats in the party's history.
In fact, party leader PC Chacko told ANI that given that his own party lost so badly, he didn't want
to make any comment on BJPs extremely poor showing.
Check out the chart below:
Yahan ke hum Sikandar to Yeh kya hua: Songs
for AAP, BJP and Cong after Delhi results

he Delhi results are finally out and AAP has taken the state by storm. Arvind Kejriwal and
his party got 67 seats out of a possible 70, while all BJP got was a paltry three.
Now that the results are out, the blame game and finger-pointing is likely to start as will the analysis of why BJP lost and how AAP won in such a historic way. However given India's love for Bollywood, we think that the best way to analyse this situation is with a song, for each party.
Here's our list of songs that BJP, AAP and Congress should sing post the Delhi elections:
1. Yahan ke hum Sikandar from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander by AAP: AAP wasn't daunted by
the criticism, which came their way after they quit the government in 2013 in just 49 days. Instead
they came back played the game, and like Aamir Khan in the film, the underdog emerged victorious in great style. So it makes perfect sense for them to sing, "Woh sikandar hi dosto kehlaata hai/
Haari baazi ko jitana jise aata hai."
2. Main to raste se ja raha tha from Coolie No 1 by AAP to BJP trolls: From Mufflerman
to Khujliwal, BJP trolls have been relentlessly mocking AAP leader Kejriwal. Thankfully they have
been silenced for some time on social media with hashtags like #AAPSweep and #AAPkiDilli. AAP
now should absolutely sing to the trolls, "Tujhe mirchi lagi toh main kya karun,".
3. Baar baar haan from Lagaan by Kejriwal to Modi: PM Modi had not only called AAP
chief Kejriwal an anarchist, but had also said, "Those who call themselves anarchists should join
the Naxals in the jungles. Anarchism does not belong to Delhi, which is the centre of politics in this
country." But, Delhi thought otherwise, and wants to keep Kejriwal as the chief minister. AAP's win
is a lot like Lagaan's Bhuvan and his team winning a cricket match against the British. So here's to
Kejriwal singing, "Baar baar haan, bolo yaar haan/ Apni jeet ho, unki haar haan."
4.Yeh kya hua from Amar Prem by BJP: With Modi on the Prime Minister's chair and states
like Maharashtra, Haryana in the party's kitty, BJP was over the moon. Its leaders went about calling people names (read Rahul baba) and the Hindutva brigade undauntedly spoke of 'love jihad',
carried out 'ghar wapsi' and asked Hindu women to have four children. Meanwhile the voters in
Delhi weren't impressed and now the BJP should go back to singing and pondering, "Yeh kya hua,
kaise hua, kab hua kyon hua, jab hua, tab hua oh chodo, yeh na socho."
5.Britney Spears' Hit me baby one more time by BJP to Delhi voters: The BJP probably
never thought it would end up with 3 seats in the Delhi polls. We're guessing the decision to bring
in Kiran Bedi didn't help much. Maybe now they can sing to the Delhi voters, "Oh baby, baby, how
was I supposed to know/ That something wasn't right here/ Oh baby, baby, I shouldn't have let
you go/ And now you're out of sight, yeah/ Show me how you want it to be/ Tell me baby 'cause I
need to know now, oh because."
6. Dil mera churaya kyun from Akele Hum Akele Tum by Congress: The Congress has
won no seats this time, clearly a new shameful record of some kind. It's worse considering that
till 2013 Delhi had a Congress government, which had been in power for the last 15 years. For the
Congress, there's really only one song, "Why did you break my heart, why did we fall in love/
Why did you go away, away, away, away."
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and
other top jokes inspired by the Delhi polls

ow that we are all over the shock of AAP's astounding victory in the Delhi elections, it's
time for the jokes to start. With such a huge margin of victory, with the 'invincible' BJP reduced to a paltry three seats in the assembly, there is plenty of raw material for jokes and
political humour. So of course social media is literally crowded with them.
One of the most popular jokes doing the rounds on Twitter is the one where people have pointed
out that even Nano (one of the smallest cars in India) has more seats in the BJP.
We take a look at some of the other top jokes on social media. We found these on Quora. Take a
look:
Some movie titles: Muffler man, Three Musketeers and Well Invisible Man for Congress.
No seats for Congress
It sounds convenient. An Innova might just be too big.
Congress's zero seats was predicted in ancient times by Aryabhatta.
Tata Nano and the BJP
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and
other top jokes inspired by the Delhi polls

he Delhi Assembly elections results on Tuesday dealt a massive blow to the BJP who were
clearly not expecting a defeat of such magnitude. While most exit polls across research
agencies predict a slight edge to the AAP in a tough electoral battle, none predicted a 67seat win for the party in a 70-member House.
But in a day full of AAP triumphs, we take a look at the five biggest losers of this election:
Ajay Maken
The biggest blow for the Congress was the defeat of its election campaign chief Ajay Maken. While
most exit polls had predicted a 2-3 seat win for the party, they didn't even manage a single.
While Maken has now offered to resign as Congress General Secretary given his party's disastrous
performance, it would be stupid to pin the blame on the former Union minister as since the election was declared, it has always been an AAP vs BJP fight and the Congress never really featured.
Interestingly, early morning on counting day, when Congress was leading in five seats, Maken
quipped, "well at least we're doing better than what the exit polls predicted."
Jagdish Mukhi
If the BJP's top leadership had not appointed Kiran Bedi as its CM candidate, professor Jagdish
Mukhi could well have been the top contender for the post. A veteran BJP leader and an RSS man,
Mukhi has been winning the Assembly seat, a BJP stronghold, since 1993.
A professor at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Bhagat has been the Leader of Opposition in Delhi
and has served the BJP in various capacities including as a member of its National Executive Committee. His defeat though comes as a massive blow to the party which now, besides being almost
wiped out in the Assembly, has not formidable state party leadership as well. Mukhi lost his seat by
over 25,000 votes.
Kiran Walia
This defeat was almost certain given that it was against the AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal. If Kejriwal could manage to defeat three-time Congress CM Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 Assembly elections, Kiran Walia was no match.
A former minister in Dikshit's cabinet, Walia had challenged Kerjiwal's candidature in court raising questions about his affidavit as well as his road shows which she alleged were in violation of the
model code of conduct. The Election Commission, however, stood by Kejriwal saying his candidature was valid as his name was enrolled as a voter in New Delhi constituency, as required by law.
Walia, who was quite obviously trailing since counting began, managed to secure just 4,781 seats
as compared to Kejriwal's 57,213.
Kiran Bedi
The BJP may have expected Kiran Bedi's candidature and her projection as the party's CM candidate to rope in a massive victory for the party by winning the middle class vote, but little did they
expect that Bedi would go on to lose from Krishna Nagar, a BJP stronghold that has been represented by now Union Minister Harsh Vardhan since 1993.
While Bedi did face some setbacks with her own election campaign chief resigning 1o days before
the election, the party was certain she would come through and at least be a strong opposition
voice if the party failed to get a majority.
But even in defeat, Bedi was not humble. "I have not lost, the BJP has lost. They are a national
party, let them introspect," she told reporters from her residence on Tuesday afternoon.
Sharmistha Mukherjee
A fresh face that the Congress party was hoping would work in its favour was that of Sharmistha
Mukherjee, daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee, a veteran Congressman.
Mukherjee, who joined the party only last year launched her campaign with a focus on Resident
Welfare Associations hoping to win the vote of fellow residents. The established Kathak dancer
also managed to get West Bengal Congress leaders to campaign for her candidature, hoping to win
the support of the Bengali dominant Chitaranjan Park area of Greater Kailash, but to no avail.
Aam Aadmi Party's Saurabh Bharadwaj, who won in 2013 as well, managed to win with an even
higher number of votes this time.
Cooler than Michelle Obama, meet Delhis truly

modern, aam aurat first lady Sunita Kejriwal
Piyashree Dasgupta, February 12, 2015
ust as Twitter started to sound a little

drunk with glee and shock after the Aam
Aadmi Party raced to victory in the Delhi
polls, the picture that caught the fancy of the Internet was not one of AAP supporters gobbling
laddoos or Kejriwal sans a muffler. It was of a
woman, Sunita Kejriwal, hardly recognisable
to the thousands of AAP voters and their many
other fans across the country.
Arvind Kejriwal - the shrieking, complaining,
one-dialogue-a-second bunch of nerves as we
know him - did something we hardly associate
him, or any other politician in the country, with.
As the shutterbugs went into a tizzy, he locked
his wife in a spontaneous embrace.
Despite being familiar with the sight of wives
and families of politicians making appearances
in rallies etc, the reason the picture made us go
'aww' was how genuine it was. It didn't seem
like the regular 'I-am-a-family-man-neta' photo
op that we are all so used to.
familiar with.
While Kejriwal was quick to warn his party
members to not develop hubris soon after the
results came out, he also thanked the single
most important person in his life profusely. In
fact, while he didn't sound a victory horn on
Twitter, he made it a point to thank Sunita.
Clad in a simple orange printed salwar kameez,
the first significant picture of the future Delhi
chief minister's wife was that of an aam aurat
and the media was quick to spot it too. The
Economic Times' headlined a profile feature
on Sunita Kejriwal as the 'Aam Aurat behind
Indias uncommon man'.
"I would not have been able to achieve anything
without her. I can do nothing alone," the ET
quotes Kejriwal as telling his supporters.
An Indian Revenue Services employee, Sunita
is not your usual neta's wife. She continued to
keep her job, despite her husband's political
foray. In fact it is her commitment to her job
that allowed her husband to go around, engaging in his political shennaingans. She put food
on the table, and even a roof above their heads.
"I have dragged her here today...I told her the
government will not take any action. She was
never seen. But she was always there," said
Kejriwal.
Kejriwal hugged Sunita the way you and I would

hug a partner when we get a promotion, get
otherwise awesome news. It was pure, unadulterated joy, the kind the aam aadmi is all too
Sunita herself didn't play the adarsh homely

Indian wife stereotype while explaining why
she was always in the background. She refused
to endorse a melodramatic account of being
the resilient, supportive, sacrificial woman that
the Indian masses love - she offered a practical
explanation behind her absence from Kejriwal's
many rallies and other shenanigans.
She told ET and other media outlets that as she
is a government servant, it was not right and
legal for her to comment on the political developments around her.

In staying away from the media glare and at the
same time participating in a very personal moment of celebration that was unfurling in public, Sunita Kejriwal presented India with a role
model that us aam aurat can do with. She is at
once encouraging and humbling. Her fabulous
ability to balance her personal commitments
with her professional engagements is the stuff
women's health drinks ad-makers should be
envious of. The life she has led so far, even they
couldn't have concocted.
The fact that Sunita decided to keep her job
with the IRS and follow the professional discipline expected of her despite her husband's
tumultuous public life shows how the modern
Indian woman can partake in a relationship as
an equal, without either getting overwhelmed
by it, or ignoring it.
She is not the weepy picture of sacrifice behind
a successful man. She is a successful individual
who happens to also be the wife of a successful
politician.
let the pressures and privileges of being a popular politician's wife get to her. At a time when
the likes of Mulayam Singh Yadav have turned
people like his daughter-in-law into mere political puppets, Sunita's relationship with Kejriwal's political career is interesting to say the least.
We have had a similar example in Devendra
Fadnavis' wife, who continues to keep her job
in a private bank. However, like we had noted
in this article, Amruta Fadnavis has enthusiastically become an extension of her husband's
political life. While she continues to be a thorough professional, from her interviews to public
appearances, she chooses to emphasise her role
as Devendra Fadnavis' wife . One has to blame
the media here too, the soundbites they seek
mostly have to do with her being the CM's wife
and Amruta happily obliges. Which is where
Sunita Kejriwal cuts a refreshing new picture.
While the aam aadmi CM of Delhi is grabbing
eyeballs, we have our sights set on his aam aurat
wife!
While reporting Kejriwal's quote on his wife,

The Indian Express chose to draw a parallel
with Michelle Obama and Barack Obama. The
article said, "Does Delhi have its first first couple in the Kejriwals? When US President Barack
Obama won his second term, the first image
that went up was of him hugging wife Michelle,
with the caption four more years."
We hope not.
Michelle Obama, who had a hugely successful
law career is now someone whose entire life is
orchestrated around being FLOTUS, the First
Lady of US, essentially the President's wife.
Now the pressures and security issues of a Delhi
politician and the President of US are hardly
comparable, but Sunita Kejriwal offers Indian
women a life plan that's both practical and empowering.
While Arvind Kejriwal should also be credited
with supporting Sunita, it is quite true that it is
she who has put up with her husband's reputation, not the other way round. She clearly didn't
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Table of contents

Historic win: AAP winning 67 seats is the mandate of all

What AAPs victory means for BJP and Congress

AAP wins but it wont be an easy ride

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

The Twitter verdict

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Historic win: AAP winning 67 seats

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

It is our victory: Aam aadmi celebrates

AAP landslide in Delhi elections

ew Delhi: In the year the creator of the

Much before the results started pouring in and

Its is the victory of none other than the aam

It was equally chaotic situation around the AAP

Riyazuddin, an auto-rickshaw driver said: Ye

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Delhi election result: Its a victory for

ew Delhi: In his first public comments

As Kejriwal made his brief comments, giving

Addressing thousands of cheering supporters at

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Amazing stats from Delhi polls: 55 AAP

he Delhi election results have given the

The Delhi election results have seen new

MLA who won with the highest vote share at 71percent

MLA who won with lowest vote share.

Lower percentage of margin of victory

AAP's Sandeep Kumar had the highest percent of Margin of victory.

MLA with highest margin of victory in terms of votes.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Zero MLAs with serious criminal charges:

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Pundits got it wrong: Post-poll survey

shows how AAP engineered its shocking win

lmost one in every two voters voted for

hat's the conclusion of a CSDS-Lokniti

national capital are dominated by particular

campaign. This probably justifies the BJPs

The post poll survey also found that a majority

The CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey found that

Among the earliest decision-makers, the AAP

In a number of ways, the survey confirms what

Amit Shah's last minute scramble was

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

releases its data which will show us just how

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

#AAPSweep to #AAPKiDilli: After historic

ew Delhi: The landslide victory of AAP

of every AAP volunteer."

ing sites with messages congratulating Arvind

Kiran Bedi also tweeted, "Full marks to Arvind.

Director Shekhar Kapoor wrote, "And now,

One Dibyesh Anand wrote on twitter, "A great

AAP leader and actress Gul Panag wrote, "What

"#AAPSweep Unbelievable mandate. Let the

BEST," tweeted Aparna Chakraborty.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Who was least wrong? All the Delhi exit

he Aam Aadmi Party has won 60 and

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Copyright 2012 Firstpost