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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 05
Delhi election result: It’s a victory for truth, says Kejriwal after landslide win 07
Amazing stats from Delhi polls: 55 AAP MLAs won with more than 50%
vote share 08
Zero MLAs with serious criminal charges: Delhi’s new assembly is the cleanest
in India 13
Pundits got it wrong: Post-poll survey shows how AAP engineered its shocking
win 14
#AAPSweep to #AAPKiDilli: After historic win, AAP hashtags take Twitter by
storm 17
Who was least wrong? All the Delhi exit poll predictions completely miss the
mark 19
Mufflerman is now Godzilla: Arvind Kejriwal’s 54% victory is baap of all
mandates 26
Business-friendly Kejriwal? What made baniyas choose AAP over BJP 28
Election mystery: How did Delhi exit polls completely miss the AAP tsunami? 30
Landslide victory in Delhi: Here’s why AAP’s humility after victory is touching 32
What AAP’s victory means for BJP and Congress

Congress rout in Delhi: Will Rahul Gandhi own responsibility now? 35
Yogendra Yadav is right, after AAP win, other states will write off PM Modi at
their peril 36
Delhi defeat means 2015 has to be Modi’s year of big reforms. It’s now or never 38
Delhi poll results: AAP’s landslide victory show how media misread Modi wave 40
Stop giving gyaan, we aren’t idiots: Aam aadmi’s royal snub to BJP in Delhi polls 42
Modi defeated Modi in Delhi polls: He cannot avoid blame for BJP’s rout 44
Five mistakes of Kiran Bedi’s life: Why BJP was routed in Delhi 47
Beware a Congress-mukt Bharat: AAP is not the BJP counter that India needs 49
AAP wins but it won’t be an easy ride

AAP sweeps Delhi by its feet, but BJP and Modi won’t make life easy for Kejriwal 53
Why Arvind Kejriwal has the right to be ‘very scared’ of Delhi election results 55
Delusion posing as reality: AAP’s biggest challenge is to deliver on its manifesto 57
Aaptard wars: What Kejriwal’s supporters can learn from Modi and his bhakts 60
Dear AAP: Landslide Delhi election victory does not a national party make 63
Ready, set, slow: Can AAP avoid the pitfalls that come with absolute power? 65
AAP clearly wants to go national, but it must prove itself in Delhi first 68
Careful what you ask for: Kejriwal’s full Delhi statehood demand could backfire 70
Copyright © 2012 Firstpost

The Twitter verdict
Delhi results: Three charts to show how the election played out on Twitter 74
Yahan ke hum Sikandar to Yeh kya hua: Songs for AAP, BJP and Cong after
Delhi results 78
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and other top jokes inspired by the
Delhi polls 81
Invisible man, the BJP and the Tata Nano and other top jokes inspired by the
Delhi polls 85
Cooler than Michelle Obama, meet Delhi’s truly modern, aam aurat ‘first lady’
Sunita Kejriwal 89

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
N
ew Delhi: In the year the creator of the Much before the results started pouring in and
ubiquitous yet speechless common the trends showed AAP candidates much ahead
man, RK Laxman, died, the real com- and celebrations began outside the East Patel
mon man has found his voice through the com- Nagar office of the party and at the park oppo-
mon man’s party. The historic win of the Aam site it. Revellers shouted slogans, showered rose
Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly Election petals and waved the national flag.
2015 with a verdict that will ensure it will never
have to abandon the seat of power, proves that The jubilation in the locality and outside the
the way the common man voted in this country Patel Nagar metro station was mind-boggling.
so far has changed for good. 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.”
It was equally chaotic situation around the AAP

office. People, volunteers and followers could
“It’s is the victory of none other than the aam be seen showering rose petals and cheering
aadmi (common man)” - is what could be heard with blue balloons, cut-outs of Kejriwal and the
throughout East Patel Nagar – the headquar- party's symbol the jhaadu (brooms).
ters of the AAP, with a sea of people all around
greeting one another. Pankaj Gupta, a senior AAP leader and a key
strategist for the party told Firstpost: “We were
While thanking the party workers and the definite about getting 50 seats as Yogendra
people of Delhi, Kejriwal from the balcony of Yadav had projected. But today’s result speaks
his party office said, “We shouldn’t become ar- about the faith that the Delhi voters reposed
rogant after this verdict. It’s arrogance that has in us. They really understand who to vote for.
reduced the Congress and the BJP to this state. They can’t be fooled by false claims. People
We’ve to serve the people with folded hands have voted for us knowing that the AAP would
(Haath jod kar humey sewa karni hai). Oth- deliver what it has committed to. Now, we have
erwise people will reduce us to the same state a lot of pressure on us. We have to perform and
after five years.” assure Delhiites that we would deliver what we
had promised.”
The results showed 67 seats for the AAP (de-
clared and leading) and three for the BJP. The Among those on the streets of Delhi, many were
Congress scored a grand total of zero. jubilant over the AAP's victory.
Riyazuddin, an auto-rickshaw driver said: “Ye The woman, 62-year-old Asha Jain, said, “Peo-
jeet logon ki mohabbat ka nateeza hai (This win ple in Delhi are tired of Congress. The BJP can’t
is the result of the people’s love). All autowal- do anything as it has proved in the functioning
lahs unanimously voted for AAP.” of the municipal corporation. The best option
was AAP and the voters took a chance by bring-
Shamshad Khan, another autorickshaw driver ing in AAP with a majority.”
who came from Okhla to the AAP headquarters
to be a part of the historic moment, said,“This Her husband, 66-year-old AK Jain, “This land-
is the result of Kejriwal’s 49-day government, slide victory is the result of people’s anger. The
as we saw its effects ourselves. This time, physi- days of speeches and rhetoric are over.”
cally challenged, ill and the old, all came out to
vote in large numbers and that is why AAP has Another senior citizen Vinay Aneja from nearby
got such a phenomenal victory.” Ramesh Nagar said, “We expect the promises
made by AAP to be delivered soon, people have
Amidst a huge cheering crowd of AAP mem- voted for change from regular parties over the
bers, volunteers, local residents and people traditional ones. However, we also wish to see
from other parts of Delhi who were a part of the Arvind Kejriwal spending his time on making
victory celebration, a sexagenarian couple from Delhi a better state and not just on agitations,
East Patel Nagar was found moving around with dharnas and blame games as what happened
blue balloons. during his last 49 days tenure.”

Delhi election result: It’s a victory for
truth, says Kejriwal after landslide win
IANS, February 10, 2015
N
ew Delhi: In his first public comments As Kejriwal made his brief comments, giving
after his AAP won a landslide in Delhi's due credit to the AAP's victory to the voters and
assembly election, party leader Arvind his activists, he said: "This is not a victory of the
Kejriwal Tuesday described it as "a victory for AAP. This is a victory for truth and honesty."
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 Su-

nita 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
T
he Delhi election results have given the The Delhi election results have seen new
Aam Aadmi Party a landslide win of 67 records being set in nearly each constituency.
seats out of a total of 70 seats. The party According to the Association of Democratic
which won 28 seats in the last election, com- Reforms, the average vote-share of all the MLAs
pletely routed the BJP, which was reduced to a who won the election was 55 percent and that
mere 3 seats from its previous tally of 31. 55 (79 percent) out of 70 MLAs won with a vote
share of 50 percent or more. All of these are
AAP's victory is much more impressive if you AAP MLAs.
look at the fact that the party managed to get
54.3 percent of the total vote-share, which is a We take a look at some interesting statistics
rare feat indeed for any party in India. In the regarding the Delhi election:
Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the AAP had got
a vote-share of 32.9 percent in Delhi. Even It wasn't party chief Arvind Kejriwal but MLA
though this was an increase from its vote share Prakash Jarwal won with the highest vote share
of 29 percent in 2013 Assembly elections, the (71 percent) in the Deoli constituency of Delhi.
party had failed to win any seat but finished He is also the youngest candidate from the party
second in every seat. at 25-years-old and had left a job at a multi-
national 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:
Delhi’s new assembly is the cleanest in India
FP Politics, February 12, 2015
I
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 de-
clared 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 coun-
try."
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
A
lmost one in every two voters voted for
the AAP in Delhi. Defying pundit predic-
tions 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:
T
hat's the conclusion of a CSDS-Lokniti national capital are dominated by particular
post-poll survey conducted on 7 Feb- communities and therefore considered strong-
ruary found. It is just one of the many holds of particular parties. AAP swept aside
notable insights offered by the survey, which such traditional notions of 'safe' seats in its
also maps the sheer breadth and reach of AAP's march towards victory.
popularity.
While the BJP may have largely held on to the
AAP swept aside all caste/class barriers support of particular castes like Brahmins and
Jains, it saw an deep erosion in the number of
As we'd pointed out earlier, certain seats in the people supporting it from other upper caste
communities like the Punjabi Khatris and Ra- campaign. This probably justifies the BJP’s
jputs. The traditional support base of the Con- hasty decision of playing the Bedi gamble.
gress seems to have moved almost completely to Again, one could argue probably that the BJP
the AAP. The absence of identity-based voting had to do something out-of-the-box to have a
is glaringly evident in the case of the four Shiro- chance. The distress call by BJP in the last leg
mani Akali Dal candidates who were fielded to of campaigning by roping in the Prime Min-
win seats where the Sikh and Punjabi commu- ister and his cabinet helped the party salvage
nity votes played a role, but all of them ended some of its vote as the gap narrowed to some
up on the losing side. extent among those who decided close to voting
(26 per cent). The intensive BJP campaign in
The C-voter exit poll indicated that the AAP en- the last 10 days seems to have been just enough
joyed greater support among the young but had for it to retain its core support group.
a wide lead when it came to the relatively less
educated of the city. It enjoyed much greater So while we're all beating up on Amit Shah,
support when it came to those engaged in blue his choices in the last month of campaigning
collar jobs and students while it was neck and were perhaps what preserved BJP's vote share.
neck with the BJP among the professional class. But the numbers also show that it was too late.
The CSDS- Lokniti survey, however, shows that BJP's high visibility effort that relied on adver-
the AAP won 66% of the poor, 57% of the lower tisements, Facebook and Twitter campaigns
class, 51% of the middle class, and 47% of the likely did little to change the outcome, accord-
upper class. BJP did far better in the poshest ing to the survey. In the end, AAP won with a
areas of Delhi, but in the end won only 43% of better ground game, more appealing message,
the upper class votes. All that talk about a class and of course, CM candidate.
war turned out to be just hot air in the end.
Kejriwal mattered
The two surveys show that will have to recog-
nise the fact that the voter is no longer held The one factor that was perhaps most under-
by old loyalties, as Firstpost Executive Editor, estimated in TV studios and opinion columns
Lakshmi Chaudhry, observed, was the personal popularity of Arvind Kejri-
wal. Making him the AAP choice of CM was in
The base – the solid voting bloc that a party the end the single biggest factor in the party's
or leader can rely on winning as a bare mini- sweep.
mum in a given election – is shrinking. We are
witnessing the rise of the independent voter The CSDS-Lokniti post-poll survey found that
who is driven purely by self-interest, and who Kejriwal enjoyed a far higher standing among
will increasingly become the decisive factor in voters than Kiran Bedi, even on subjects that
Indian elections, much as in the United States. she spoke extensively on, such as the safety of
Kejriwal can no more rely on her allegiance women. Whether it was solving the city's water
than a Modi. and power woes, tackling the problems of the
city's slums, running the government or curb-
Amit Shah's last minute scramble was ing corruption, Kejriwal enjoyed the trust of
justified and futile the Delhi voter far more than his BJP rival, and
Modi's best efforts did little to change that view.
The post poll survey also found that a majority Neither Bedi nor Modi could hold on to the
of the voters (62 percent) had made up their additional voters brought in by the Modi wave
mind well before the parties began campaign- in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, who ended up
ing, and the skew was decidedly in favour of in the AAP camp this time around, leaving BJP
AAP. The authors of the survey write: with little more than its traditional base.
Among the earliest decision-makers, the AAP In a number of ways, the survey confirms what
enjoyed a lead of 22 percentage points over we already suspected at the sight of that 67
the BJP. The gap widens to almost 37 points number. But the real scale of the victory will
among those who decided early during the be evident only once the Election Commission

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
N
ew Delhi: The landslide victory of AAP of every AAP volunteer."
in Delhi today sent netizens into a
frenzy as they flooded social network- "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 Naren-

dra Modi congratulated Kejriwal and posted,
"Spoke to @ArvindKejriwal & congratulated
him on the win. Assured him Centre's complete
support in the development of Delhi."
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
ing sites with messages congratulating Arvind congratulated Kejriwal for the victory.
Kejriwal and his party.
She tweeted, "My hearty congratulations to AAP
Hashtags like #AAPSweep, #AAPKiDilli, for sweeping Delhi Elections. All the best @
#KisKiDilli and #DelhiLegislativeAssembly ArvindKejriwal the new CM."
trended throughout the day with numerous
tweets and Facebook posts pouring in from Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister
across the country. Omar Abdullah posted, "Wow, well done #Delhi
& well done @AamAadmiParty. Good luck to @
Actress Shabana Azmi posted, "The indian ArvindKejriwal for the next 5 years."
voter deserves all our respect.Congratulations
to #AAP. Dilli ne keh diya ab tumhare hawale According to social media watchdog Buzzooka
watan saathiyo.ball is in your court (sic)." '#AAPSweep' was trending at the top spot in
India with 29,000 tweets during first half of the
Film maker Pritish Nandy tweeted, "Indian vot- day.
ers are very sharp. Never underestimate them.
They know the power they wield." One Dibyesh Anand wrote on twitter, "A great
news that gives hope against majoritarian
Director Shekhar Kapoor wrote, "And now, nationalism in democracy #DelhiElections
Dear @ArvindKejriwal it's time for you to prove #AAPSweep" another netizen Mansihullah
you deserve the Budye wrote, "When #Delhi went to poll, no one
immense faith that Voters have put on ur shoul- in their right mind would have predicted this
ders #DelhiDecides." result. #DelhiDecides #AAPSweep"
AAP leader and actress Gul Panag wrote, "What "#AAPSweep Unbelievable mandate. Let the
makes this victory sweeter is that it was won deserving win and hopefully Capital City will
against all odds. I bow to the effort and energy 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
T
he Aam Aadmi Party has won 60 and of them had foreseen a neck-to-neck fight be-
leading in seven of Delhi's 70 seats, an tween AAP and BJP. But the Delhi mandate has
unprecedented margin of victory. The proved all of them wrong.
BJP is down to a paltry three seats with the
Congress no where in the picture.
Although, the exit polls had predicted a dra-

matic comeback for AAP's Arvind Kejriwal, all

Mufflerman is now Godzilla: Arvind
Kejriwal’s 54% victory is baap of all mandates
R. Jagannathan, February 10, 2015
D
elhi is an unusual election in many The BJP, despite the pathetic seat count, has
ways. It fact it is an outlier by any actually held on to its voter base. It got more
standard of Indian voting behaviour votes than what it did the last time, but it got
seen in the recent past. almost none of the incremental vote. It did not
benefit from the collapse of the Congress vote or
The reason is not the landslide win for Arvind from the new voters who entered EVM booths
Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which gives for the first time this time This means it has a
it a 60-plus seat majority in a 70-seat assembly. base to build on, but must actively woo the new
What makes Delhi different is that, possibly demographic in the coming months and years to
for the first time in several decades, one party stay relevant.
is likely to receive more that 50 percent of the
popular vote. The Congress has been trounced badly. It has
Narendra Modi’s vote in 2014 was 31 percent seen its 2013 vote down to a third of its previous
level, which means the party is rapidly becom-
ing 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 be-
ginning 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 Yadav’s vote in 2012 was Probably for the first time ever, though we saw
under 30 percent for a majority. Almost no glimpses of it in the May 2014 elections too, a
party which swept to power has got more than state is voting more on class lines, even though
35-40 percent of the popular vote. AAP has demonstrated a hold among all classes.
The underclass and the minorities were the bed-
Voting trends available till around 10.30 am, rock of AAP’s support, even though it did well in
which have held all through the morning, show all segments.
AAP with 53.2 percent of the total vote, against
the BJP’s 33.8 percent and Congress’s 8.5 per- What unites all classes (at least temporarily) is
cent. The rest got peanuts, if at all. probably the idea of less corruption and good
government, but this will not endure. Any state
Seldom has one party got this kind of mandate with finite resources will have to decide how
ever in a fragmented Indian election. This is a to allocate its spending. It cannot pay Pappu,
mandate like almost no other. Rahim and Singh uniformly. It has to choose
its priorities, and, in the process, it can alienate
But, first, it is necessary to assess what hap- some segments.
pened, before we discuss the implications of this
vote. Logically, the best way forward for AAP to cre-

ate a long-term viability for its political position This is where AAP’s 50 percent plus vote share
is to concentrate on delivering public goods – is worrisome. This means everybody has voted
law and order, clean water, reduction of corrup- for it for his or her own reason, and so the
tion, good social and physical infrastructure, chances of being able to meet everybody’s exces-
including better education and health facilities sive expectations are remote.
– and go easy on private goods (freebies, cheap-
er power, food and other subsidies). The AAP I would not like to be in Arvind Kejriwal’s shoes
manifesto has, however, promised too much right now. His mandate is truly scary.
here too.
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
W
ith all trends clearly showing a clean and traders have both expressed their unhap-
sweep by Aam Aadmi Party, party piness with the arbitrary manner VAT is cur-
chief Arvind Kejriwal has not only rently calculated without a proper rationale.
won the support of the working classes and the Kejriwal also floated a proposal to initiate the
lower middle classes but has also won over the online payment of taxes.
BJP's core constituency of the upper castes -
especially the trader class - with the promise of Then during his rallies, Kejriwal described
a corruption-free society and rationalision of himself as a “baniya”, playing on his Aggarwal
VAT. 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
Even though Corporate India has often criti- the entire Agarwal Samaj as Updravi',” Kejriwal
cised AAP for being too populist, it hasn't had alleged earlier.
stopped the party from winning the support of
some members of the business community who As it is, the BJP-led central government has
are prepared to put their money where their been struggling to address the community's
mouths are. The reason? BJP never walked the misgivings over Foreign Direct Investment in
talk in Delhi. Despite initially refusing to form retail and Kejriwal positioning the ad as an in-
the government as it was short on numbers, it sult to the entire community only added to the
made no effort to form a government in the last BJP's jitters.
several months, leaving many traders high and
dry. His political mandate has also promised a re-
structuring of the tax regime in Delhi as well as
Apart from just promising lower water and putting an end to the “extortion and raid racket”
power tarrifs, this time around Kejriwal went by the VAT department. He also assured the
one step further to win over the 25 lakh strong community that the party would have a “single-
trader community, that constitutes about 20 window” clearance system for those wanting to
percent of the electorate in Delhi and has for open businesses in Delhi and promised that all
long been a safe BJP constituency. transactions would be made online to reduce
the interface with the city government.
He did so with the promise of lowering value-
added tax on products, which were higher in “There will be minimum interference from the
states, especially neighbouring ones. Consumers government. Our party’s policy is not to indulge

in raids, but trust the traders. Our government Manoj Agarwal, a businessman from Rohini
will see the end of VAT raids and extortion echoed Bajoria's views. " At the central level,
racket and create a business-friendly environ- I still prefer the BJP government, but when it
ment,” Kejriwal had told the traders community comes to state elections, Arvind Kejriwal has my
ahead of the Assembly polls. To add to that, vote purely because he is an academic and and
AAP volunteers left no stone unturned either a mechanical engineer and our country needs
and those belonging to the ‘baniya’ caste were people like him because he is a doer, unlike
given the responsibility to campaign and sway the rest of the politicians who are just chasing
voters from their community. power," he told Firstpost.
It seems that AAP's promise to abolish the in- In other words, it is felt that Kejriwal, under-
spector raj has won over the trading community stands the nitty-gritty of finance and corporate
which has for borne the brunt of surprise raids manoeuvres better than many other politicians,
on them by different departments time and and that is enough for the trading class to give
again. the party a second chance.
"At the end, everybody wants an honest face As this Economic Times article points out,
and Kejriwal scores on that front," Himanshu "Kejriwal studiously cultivated his middle class
Bansal, a banker in Delhi who has been rooting base by carefully avoiding a Dalit messiah or a
for Kejriwal told Firstpost. He further added minority protector image. Despite Dalits being
that the trading community has been rather his core vote bank, Kejriwal has not made any
impatient with the central government. " BJP special casteist appeal or extra promises for the
promised heaps in its manifesto but on the homeless, jobless, insecure Dalits. Similarly, Ke-
ground nothing has improved. Secondly, Bedi jriwal did not make a high profile visit to Trilok-
may be a clean and honest person too, but Ke- puri after the riots or to any of the churches that
jriwal has won our hearts by showing resolve to were vandalised. He sort of silently conveyed
address local issues first," he said. to his mass base that he will take special care to
protect the interests of the Dalits and the mi-
"AAP is the only party talking with sense and norities."
purpose. Modi conducted so many rallies but
did not touch a chord with us in Delhi. AAP So, while the slum dwellers and Muslims have
has spoken about development, water, power, gravitated towards the Aam Aadmi Party, leav-
electricity . I am a business man and VAT sim- ing the Congress high and dry, the AAP has also
plification and a corruption-free society is key. managed to wrench from the BJP many votes
Water and electricity affect the workers in my of the business community with its promises to
factory, which in turn affects me," said Vinay end extortion and petty corruption.
Bajoria, a businessman based out of Okhla who
also voted for AAP.

Election mystery: How did Delhi exit
polls completely miss the AAP tsunami?
P
sephology is an inexact science, espe- past-the-post system, but did they even get it
cially in a diverse voter population like right on the vote share front?
that of India. Even so, one has to wonder
whether all is right with the opinion polling Absolutely not. Axis gave it the best shot and
industry where no one got it right this time in gave AAP 49 percent of the vote – which is still
Delhi – except the broad point of a clear win for more than 10 percent off from the real AAP vote
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). 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 two-
horse 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.
While one can leave pre-election opinion polls
out of the analysis, since voter intent can change It is also possible to argue that in “wave” elec-
by voting day, the fact that even the exit polls tions, pollsters can’t really get the final seat tally
got it all wrong is worrying. Exit polls should right, but this is only partly valid. In Delhi, they
normally be more accurate, since they seek got even the vote shares badly wrong, remem-
to measure actual voter behaviour, not voter ber?
intent.
One also wonders if pollsters ought to take
The exit polls this time estimated AAP’s seat something more into account beyond what peo-
tally from a high of 53 seats by India News- Axis ple are actually telling them.
to a low of 31-39 at the bottom end by CVoter.
Others predicted seats in the mid-range - 48 For example, even as early as September 2014
(News 24-Chanakya), 43 (IT-Cicero), and 39 – five months before the actual polling day
(ABP News-Nielsen). in February 2015, when Arvind Kejriwal was
presumed to be hors de combat – India Today's
The best effort – by India News-Axis – was still Mood of Delhi poll was showing him as the
a huge 25 percent off from the actual number of preferred choice for CM of Delhi even while vot-
seats the party won (67). It is significant that an ers also saying that they would vote BJP. This
exit poll was not able to make better predictions dichotomy was never explained. In November,
even in a mostly two-horse race. when the PM and Amit Shah were campaigning
in J&K and Jharkhand, another poll showed the
Of course, it can be argued that the projection of same results: Kejriwal for CM, BJP for win.
seats from vote shares can be tricky in a first-

If pollsters wanted Kejriwal as CM, and were Seats and vote shares cannot be predicted only
simultaneously indicating a pro-BJP voting by relying on the answer to the main question:
intent, what were they really saying? That they will you vote BJP, AAP or Congress? The voter’s
would vote BJP if they gave them a leader like real answer may often be: it depends.
Kejriwal? Or that their heart wanted Kejriwal,
even though their reason told them the BJP In Kashmir, for instance, the mere fact that the
would win anyway? BJP was seeking power in the Valley brought
out more voters to the booths in order to stop
Many polls also indicated that Delhi wanted it. They voted for parties they thought would be
Kejriwal as CM and Modi as PM as far back as best placed to keep the BJP out of the Valley.
2013 December and early 2014. This signal too In Delhi, once Congress looked like a loser, the
got drowned out in the noise. ultimate result depended on figuring out how
many will stay loyal to the party on voting day,
The voter, in a sense, was sending clear signals, and how many will swing towards AAP. This is
but neither the pollsters nor the media picked it what the pollsters failed to do.
up.
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 didn’t look like winning – clearly need
to be combined better to give us more credible
final results.

Landslide victory in Delhi: Here’s why
AAP’s humility after victory is touching
Chandrakant Naidu, February 11, 2015
S
uch victories could cause vertigo. AAP The party picked up the thread after the Lok
leaders are sensibly guarding against los- Sabha jolt and got down to meeting people in
ing equanimity on touching such dizzying lanes and by-lanes. This simple trick of door-
heights. Arvind Kejriwal was the first to use the to-door campaign for man to man connect was
adjective ‘scary’ for the unprecedented man- in striking contrast to BJP’s ad blitz, high pro-
date. This fear is welcome as long as he and his file road shows, hours of airtime on electronic
colleagues keep their feet grounded and remain media. Keriwal got back the warmth he offered
loyal to the guiding principles of the party. to lower middle class and marginalised people
in downtown Delhi. He came to be seen and ac-
cepted 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 voter’s heart.
After scoring a nought in the Lok Sabha elec-
tions it repeated the showing in the assembly
elections and was content to draw vicarious
pleasure from BJP’s dismal performance.
The AAP has learnt from own as well as from

others' mistakes. Kejriwal has brought a whiff of
The party has redefined political austerity. It fresh air by candidly acknowledging the enormi-
has set new rules the two mainstream parties, ty of the task in the wake of such mandate. His
the Congress and the BJP, would find hard to colleague repeatedly asked the party supporters
follow. During the campaign the AAP apolo- not to go overboard in revelries as the actual
gised to the voters of Delhi for quitting the gov- celebrations should start when the party deliv-
ernment in just 49 days last year. The party thus ers on promises.
harmed the BJP most by subtly highlighting its
arrogant and abusive conduct. Apologies have The BJP’s reaction to the Lok Sabha results in
become unknown to the BJP’s new dispensation Delhi was not so humble. It had a support in
under Narendra Modi- Amit Shah. 60 out of the 70 assembly segments. The Delhi
MPs took just eight months to squander that
Others may have forgotten the slaps Kejriwal mandate. The party strayed away from with its
took for abdicating Delhi a year ago. Kejriwal constituents and also started losing touch with
apparently did not. Instead of losing cool Kejri- own cadre. People like Arun Jaitley with no
wal and his colleagues steadfastly began recon- electoral victories to their credit directed the
necting with the Delhi voters. The AAP deserves election campaigns. Kirti Azad the party MP
praise for acknowledging and appreciating the was among the first to criticise the leadership
anger that resulted in violent reactions. The without mincing words. He did not name Jait-
auto rickshaw pliers who were tired of extortion ley or party president Amit Shah, but drove the
by policemen were upset by Kejriwal’s deser- message home referring to the changing culture
tion. So were the others of that socio-economic in the party.
strata.

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

spurned Bukhari's overtures to avoid counter-
polarisation 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 de-
nied the Congress post of leader of Opposition
in the Lok Sabha. With such little experience
in governance the new ruling party will virtu-
ally 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 AAP’s victory means for BJP and Congress

Congress rout in Delhi: Will Rahul
Gandhi own responsibility now?
Sanjeev Singh, February 10, 2015
T
hough the focus of the Delhi elections did nothing to counter it,” says V Mathew,
has been the rout of the BJP and the AAP Executive Director Centre for Market Research
making this election look like a walk in and Social Development.
the park, the decimation of Congress is a devel-
opment that should not be overlooked. “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 party’s revival, nothing
concrete has come out of these meetings so far.
Both Maken and Lovely have sent their resigna-

tions to Congress president, but they are unlike-
ly 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 in-
come group and Dalits were wooed assiduously
It’s easy to look for many reasons why the Con- while the Congress never prepared any counter
gress has failed to open its account this elec- strategy.
tion, but the tough part is looking for answers
to a problem that keeps getting complex by the And as the showdown began for the most bit-
day for the Grand Old Party. ter battle in Delhi, the irrelevance of Congress
in a direct fight between BJP and AAP left the
Rahul Gandhi did take a step in the right direc- minorities with little option but to support the
tion by handing over the reins of Delhi Congress party who was most likely to defeat BJP. “Every-
to Ajay Maken and Arvinder Singh Lovely. But one knows Priyanka is the need of the hour, but
that was never going to make any difference to who will say that and face the party’s ire,” says
the results, and the Congress was never in the a former Congress leader. “The way Rahul Ji is
fight in an election dominated between the raw running party affairs, more people will desert
power of BJP (read Modi) and the street power the party in days to come” he confides.
of AAP (read Kejriwal). Lovely backed out of
the fight when he withdrew from contesting the Though Congress leaders can never get enough
Gandhi Nagar seat, while Ajay Maken lost by of saying that the party has seen many adverse
51,000 votes in the Sadar Bazar seat. situations and has come out a winner, this lat-
est result has shown that their time is fast run-
But what is disturbing is that the Congress vice ning out. Either Rahul Gandhi hits the dust and
president went about the election campaign in a grime of electoral politics or makes way for the
listless manner, doing the occasional roadshow prodigal daughter to give hope to the workers.
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

Yogendra Yadav is right, after AAP win, other
states will write off PM Modi at their peril
Piyashree Dasgupta, February 10, 2015
A
s PM Narendra Modi's staunchest rivals anti-Congress vote, rather than a pro-BJP one.
cheered Aam Aadmi Party on from the Secondly, the AAP had gotten everything from
ring, the latter decided to play the adula- symbolism to temper right this time, playing the
tion down and caution them that Brand Modi is much abused victim with elan.
not a spent force yet.
If 'Ab Ki Bar, Modi sarkar' was the perfect
catchphrase to carry BJP to victory in the gen-
eral elections last year, 'Paanch saal Kejriwal"
was perfectly timed for this election and a well-
grounded 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 los-

ing 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.
As Modi-hater and Chief Minister of West Ben-
gal Mamata Banerjee felicitated Kejriwal and However, like Yadav pointed out, other states
AAP on Twitter, Yogendra Yadav said during a shouldn't get giddy following AAP's success in
panel discussion on NDTV that the Delhi elec- Delhi. Mostly because the voting demographic
tion results are not in any way, indication of the of Delhi and other states are vastly different.
fact that Modi doesn't hold sway over voters in Delhi is more cosmopolitan with a fair share of
states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. urban voters. It can be safely assumed that a
large chunk of Delhi's voters are bound to be of-
"I do not agree with opposition leaders who are fended by the offensive Hindutav rhetoric which
becoming smug and think that this means that seems to be on a popularity curve following the
BJP will lose in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Modi BJP's ascension to power. Some of them might
has not lost his popularity and it would be com- have also noticed how the BJP and Narendra
pletely wrong to think that," he told NDTV. Modi has kept eerily calm on the Hindutva
forces on a romp at present. They are also the
He argued that that the assumption that the kind of voter to analyse the promises made by
AAP win was more Delhi retorting to BJP, was Modi as opposed to the ones delivered in the
wrong, saying that Delhi had voted for the Aam past months he has been in power.
Aadmi Party because they had not let the voter
out of sight and done intensive groundwork - The average Delhi voter is not same as the aver-
from meeting voters door-to-door to assuring age voter in a West Bengal or Bihar. The politi-
them that they have their act together this time. cal alternatives to BJP in these states come with
the same mothballed appeal of pots-calling-ket-
One has to agree with Yadav. Delhi was never a tles-black and have been guilty of practicing the
BJP stronghold in the first place, with the 2013 same divisive politics it accuses BJP of indulg-
elections leading BJP and AAP to victory on an ing in. For example, Mamata cannot stop pan-

dering to the Muslim population in the state, Therefore, it is not safe to claim that Modi will
and neither will the political parties in Uttar cease to be a cult personality in the rest of India.
Pradesh and Bihar. Because, like it has been proved in the past,
Modi plays himself better than most of his po-
Then again, the leaders of these parties - SP, litical clones.
JD(U), TMC - are all considered as chips off the
old political block, like the BJP leaders them-
selves. 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.
Also, AAP, unlike say a TMC, comes without its

share of corruption-related controversies.

Delhi defeat means 2015 has to be Modi’s
year of big reforms. It’s now or never
T
he BJP’s stunning defeat in Delhi at the The budget needs to be super-good on the
hands of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reforms front, and Modi and Arun Jaitley must
should focus Narendra Modi’s govern- stake their all to get key legislation through,
ment less on politics and more on economics. 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 can’t afford a coal monopoly.
The third most important legislation is to en-

able 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
If the initial focus on winning state assembly them only by privatising banks and other non-
elections was unavoidable since they came one strategic public sector companies. This needs a
after the other after the Lok Sabha elections, critical piece of legislation: an omnibus law that
Delhi was where Modi and his party president allows government to hold a golden share, with
Amit Shah seriously miscalculated. It should voting rights of 51 percent in certain defined cir-
mark a turning point in their thinking. cumstances like a national or economic emer-
gency, even if the government divests upto 90
While Shah should obviously take corrective ac- percent of the stock. This golden share concept
tion on the political front and fix the leadership should be extended to nationalised banks and
issues in his party, Modi needs to focus largely all public sector organisations. This may need
on the economy. He can’t leave it all to Arun changes in the Bank Nationalisation Act, and
Jaitley, who appears to be a bit of a steady in- various laws relating to the acquisition of public
crementalist. Elections may be won or lost, but sector oil companies.
the big election in 2019 will be won or lost only
on the basis of his economic performance. 2015 What Modi should do is keep a restricted list of
should be the year of big-bang reforms. This is public sector companies that will never be disin-
the year to take the big risks politically. vested below 51 percent. I can think of a few like
SBI, one or two more big banks, ONGC, Indian
The NDA government has already lost some Oil, and some defence production companies.
time in not pushing through the big reforms Even the railways can ultimately be privatised
in its first six months of office – the so-called partially, but that fight can wait for another day.
honeymoon period. After Delhi, the honeymoon
is clearly over. But even now nothing is lost, if The 2015-16 budget is the most important one
Modi can just focus on legislation and economic since 1991, and the legislations proposed above
performance. are absolutely essential for India to hit a higher
growth path.

What Modi needs to remember is this: elec- This is the message Modi needs to take to heart.
tions can be lost here or there, but the country’s He still has more than four years in which to
growth opportunities cannot be repeatedly lost deliver. But he can’t do it if he lets 2015 become
by government’s failure to take bold decisions. yet another year of politics and minor reforms.
India has a positive demographic window for To be sure, Modi has worked hard on all fronts,
the next decade or two, after which growth will including economic reforms (diesel deregula-
again start to falter as the population ages. tion, ending policy paralysis, easing rules for
business, etc) but the public perception is that
India also has a huge youth population, which he cares more about political outcomes than
is looking for jobs and growth to provide them economic ones.
with hope.
In 2015, he needs to reverse this. If he misses
Modi’s election in 2014 and AAP’s spectacular this chance, he may lose it forever.
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 en-
hancements. Their anger will be palpable if they
don’t deliver.

Delhi poll results: AAP’s landslide victory
show how media misread Modi wave
Lakshmi Chaudhry, February 10, 2015
L
et’s be honest. The AAP landslide has leader can rely on winning as a bare minimum
taken every political pundit by surprise. in a given election – is shrinking. We are wit-
Even those expecting a BJP loss could nessing the rise of the independent voter who
not anticipate a washout of this size. While is driven purely by self-interest, and who will in-
everyone is busy decoding what AAP did right creasingly become the decisive factor in Indian
and BJP did wrong, what the Delhi results also elections, much as in the United States. Kejriwal
reveal is the extent to which the media have can no more rely on her allegiance than a Modi.
misread the Indian voter, and particularly, the
Lok Sabha elections, which spawned a number Two, the vote against Congress was not a vote
of myths that have been demolished by the Ke- against its left-liberal worldview. There was
jriwal juggernaut. much self-congratulation amongst right-of-
centre pundits who saw the vote for Modi in the
parliamentary elections as a resounding rejec-
tion of ‘handout politics.’ Except here is Kejri-
wal winning big on his 49-day track record of
electricity and water subsidies.
What Is clear is that the conflation of ‘govern-

ance’ 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 govern-
ment delivers it. If free market can create better
paid jobs and a better life, that’s just peachy.
Here then are five big mistakes made by the But if subsidies can keep those hideously high
media. bijli bills under control, hooray to that!
One, there is no Modi voter, or for that matter, Talking heads can afford the luxury of ideology.
Kejriwal voter. In the wake of the Modi wave The aam aadmi is driven mostly by his wallet.
that swept the 2014 elections, there was wide-
spread consensus that he had built a vast base Three, polarisation isn’t a brilliant electoral
of loyal voters who owed their allegiance to him weapon but a limited strategy that delivers
and not to the BJP. diminishing returns. The papers will filled with
paeans to Amit Shah’s electoral genius in the
But what Delhi shows is that the new Indian wake of the LS elections. 2014 was supposed to
voter has no use for the L-word. He or she can have been a realigning election, with ‘reverse
happily vote for one leader or party in one elec- polarisation’ effectively breaking the Dalit-
tion, and just as easily opt for the rival in the Muslim alliance in UP and Bihar. (All this while
other – and within the space of 8 months. Sure, experts were touting Modi’s ability to rise above
Modi as PM is a-okay, so is Kejriwal for CM. No identity politics.)
matter how much the PM may try and convince
them otherwise. As it turns out, the reverse polarisation card
The base – the solid voting bloc that a party or only works in an already polarised environment

like Uttar Pradesh. In other parts of the coun- “This is BJP’s defeat and also Modi’s. Because
try, amping up the religious rhetoric a la Sadhvi when he campaigned for the Lok Sabha polls,
Jyoti makes the natives restless and anxious – he sold a dream of Achhe Din (Good Days) to
as did the Dalit-Muslim conflict engineered in the voters. Many of us fell for that promise.
Trilokpuri. No one needs a riot when there are However, in last eight months since he became
jobs to be done and bills to be paid. the Prime Minister he has gone back on many
promises including the promise of reining in the
The strategy also falls flat when the other side corruption, bringing back the black money. This
anticipates the play, and refuses to take the bait. had led to the party and Modi losing their cred-
Unlike Sonia, Kejriwal didn’t make the election ibility which is seen in today’s result,” said Anna
about secularism – despite the tempting lure Hazare when he emerged to comment on AAP’s
of church attacks, ghar wapsi etc -- but stuck victory.
to his bijli-paani playbook. As the Delhi elec-
tions show, the Indian voter has risen far higher This kind of expectation from a government
above identity politics than Modi himself. that was elected less than a year ago is astound-
ing. Despite all the second-guessing about 10
Four, the impatient voter celebrated by the lakh suits, the BJP government has not com-
media is , in fact, the dangerously fickle voter. mitted any gargantuan errors either in Delhi or
While the sheer size of the Kejriwal wave is elsewhere that would justify such an ignomini-
larger than the Modi tsunami -- albeit in a pond ous defeat (even if they were perceived as the
called Delhi – it shares many of the same char- incumbent party by default). The AAP landslide
acteristics, including the most alarming one: is driven by the same junoon that propelled
A candidate whose victory matches the size of Modi into power. That exaggerated hope leads
his promises. Is it really good for democracy inevitably to exaggerated disillusionment. The
to have an electorate that blindly votes for the BJP rout will undoubtedly hearten Modi critics
candidate who promises the most? And quickly but it should offer little comfort to Kejriwal who
abandons the leader who can’t deliver immedi- is likely to feel the brunt of all that impatience
ate results? very soon.
It’s 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 aren’t idiots: Aam
aadmi’s royal snub to BJP in Delhi polls
Akshaya Mishra, February 10, 2015
A
s defeats go, this has to be the most has to remember a ruling party has to be much
comprehensive and the most humiliat- more than an election-winning machine.
ing for the BJP. It has lost the classes
and the masses in Delhi. Neither the politics Election defeats and wins as well are rarely due
of communal polarization and caste games nor to one singular factor - a combination of sev-
the grand rhetoric on development worked. All eral factors, both local and external, shape an
those dirty and below the belt attacks haven’t electoral verdict. The wave elections, which are
worked either. Its leadership, upon which the getting more frequent across the country now,
party prided itself, has just been delivered the blur all traditional calculations and perceived
royal snub by the people. equations, including that of caste, class and
identity. The Delhi verdict reveals the frustra-
tion 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 in- 1. There’s a growing perception that the govern-
cumbent government. Bigger the public anger, ment at the centre is a hopelessly attention-
worse is the defeat. In Delhi the BJP was in seeking one. It has got into the habit of trying
power by default. From the reaction across the to ‘impress’ too much. This is overbearing but
board post the results, from both voters and would still be fine if it matched achievements on
non-voters, it is evident that most wanted the the ground. Seven months on and the gap be-
BJP to lose more than the AAP to win. The party tween promise and delivery remains poor. This
would be loathe to admit this, but this indeed has not stopped the party from making every
was a referendum on the performance of the small development a big media event. People
central government and Prime Minister Naren- can see through this.
dra Modi.
2. The leader of the government is increasing
The magnitude of the BJP’s defeat would take coming across as a self-obsessed individual busy
time to sink in, but the message is unambigu- proving to the world his personal popularity.
ous. The party’s grace period has ended. People He wants to be counted among the big league
have sent it a curt reminder: stop giving gyaan, of national icons too soon. That would not be a
we are not idiots. You are in because we wanted problem if the effort was subtle and nuanced,
a hopelessly corrupt and pathetic UPA to go. and there’s substance to match. Nothing has
You start delivering or else…It depends how the been subtle about him so far – a dress with
BJP recalibrates its strategy from here on. But it one’s name written all over does not particularly

convey the right signals – and his promises are Dictatorial control over a democratic political
yet to materilise on the ground. party does not work, it can be counterproduc-
tive. Victory alone cannot justify shabby treat-
3. The underclass has hit back in Delhi. If it ment to party workers by way of induction of
feels alienated under the current dispensation outsiders. The Kiran Bedi move was a disaster
the BJP has to blame its own outlook towards and this was done to show the local leadership
the economy or at least the message it has been their place. A rebellion was waiting to happen
conveying. It, egged on by cheerleaders in the and it was a passive one in Delhi. The results
‘expert’ brotherhood, has been following an show not even the faithful stood by the party.
economic policy that is cynical as well as per- Never undervalue your own, should be the les-
verse. To be fair, both Prime Minister Modi and son for the party. They can and will strike back.
the BJP have been sober and balanced in their If the organization decides to go apathetic, the
views on the economy but the government is be- leadership, howsoever charismatic can do little.
ing seen increasingly as anti-poor and pro-rich.
The backlash was expected at some point. As The BJP promised good governance. But mat-
the government pushes ahead with its economic ters other than governance have been dominat-
agenda, the coming days would be interesting. ing the public consciousness ever since it came
to power. Complacent after a series of assembly
4. The victory of 2014, was never a victory for victories, perhaps the party ignored these. After
the Hindutva ideology. The BJP was a purely the Delhi defeat it cannot be afford to do so.
secular choice. They did not vote the RSS and The final message it can take from the elections:
its affiliates into power. But the latter took the never underestimate the common man.
mandate as license to Hinduise the country.
The normal Hindu society abhors social dishar-
mony. Thus it does not approve of burning of
churches and attacks on Muslims. The govern-
ment's silence on the activities of the Hindutva
forces has only made it look as a partner in
crime.

Modi defeated Modi in Delhi polls:
He cannot avoid blame for BJP’s rout
N
arendra Modi has a problem on his that even when he is equal to the comparison,
hands. The initials of the problem are he can offer nothing very new."
not AK, suffixed with any number (49
or 67), but NM. Modi, in some ways, is his own On the other hand, AK-67 was certainly an im-
worst enemy. proved 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.
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 well-
wisher? Does he understand the gap between
his own words and deeds that needs to be con-
There are two reasons for this. One stems from stantly monitored and bridged? Why is he able
the zero difference between Modi 2014 and to trust no one, or very few people? Is he able
Modi 2015. We saw an extraordinary politician to forgive people for their mistakes? Is he able
rise before our eyes between December 2012 to forgive himself for his blunders, learn from
and May 2014, and a capable Prime Minister them, and move on? Is he aware of his own in-
between May and December 2014. The Modi securities and able to deal with them?
we saw in January-February 2015 was the same
man, the same communicator, the same power- The reason I raise the question of self-aware-
ful voice. But we had seen him, heard him, and ness is because Modi often seems blissfully
were wowed by him before. We expected more. unaware of the impression he may be creating,
despite a carefully created public persona. What
The question in the Delhi voter’s mind – apart was he thinking when he wore an expensive suit
from solutions to civic problems - was: what with his name embroidered on it? Why did he
could Modi offer her over and above what he need to make a point about his alleged “chem-
had offered to India over the last two years? istry” with Barack Obama? Obama’s mild put-
What walk could he offer over the talk? downs about the need for secularism in India
– not once, but twice in less than a month –
The answer is zilch. As Santosh Desai wrote in show that he may be as wary of Modi as he was
The Times of India: "Modi's challenge today is before May 2014. What he did by reaching out
that his biggest opponent is none other than to Modi after his election victory was to correct
the memory of Modi last year. Last year he was a serious foreign policy lapse over the previous
measured against Rahul Gandhi and Manmo- five years, where the US, driven by evangeli-
han Singh and he towered over them in word, cal groups, treated him like a pariah. It was a
gesture and strength. Today he is measured foolish thing to do to an elected state CM, leave
against that Narendra Modi, and (one) finds alone a future PM. I doubt there was any real

chemistry between them and Modi did not seem Development Authority, and his own version
aware of the possibility that Obama was merely of the Jan Lokpal Bill? Constitutionally, Modi
being well-mannered by giving him a hug or not need not do any of these things, but if he is a
being offended by being called “Barack” and not true believer in federalism he cannot deny these
President Obama. Modi seemed more eager to powers to the elected government in Delhi. It
claim chemistry and closeness with Obama that is, at least, possible to arrive at a compromise
what may actually exist between them. on these issues, if not giving in totally to what
Kejriwal demands.
The point I am driving at by bringing up these
elementary questions of self-awareness is sim- Secondly, Modi now needs to be more like Va-
ple: losing Delhi is less of a problem than an jpayee – a man he professes to admire – while
unwillingness or inability to learn from it. Only dealing with ministry colleagues and allies.
a self-aware person can learn from his mis- It makes no sense to talk empowerment in
takes. Modi should be asking himself: how did general, and still expect his ministers to clear
I fail to see what was going on in Delhi when I everything with him. It was all right to central-
was sitting right there? Why did Amit Shah (or ise powers at the start of the new government
others in the party) not tell me Arvind Kejriwal (when ways of working had to be changed), but
was streets ahead of us in the battle for hearts not any more. His senior ministers need to be
and minds? Were my victories in Maharashtra, empowered to take decisions. He can always
Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu the result of keep control, by holding them accountable for
something more than just my personal cha- their promises and performance. If he does not
risma and development promises? Why did do this, not only will he find resentment brew-
those same strengths not work in Delhi? Why is ing, but it will lead to policy paralysis of a dif-
the media celebrating my party's defeat when I ferent kind – with all things coming to him for
have worked 18 hours a day to set things right a decision. Even with an 18-hour workday, no
in government and the PMO? Why are my own human being – not even one with Modi’s super-
political allies trying to rejoice over my defeat? human work habits – can do justice to so many
difficult decisions.
You can put your own answers (and Modi his)
against these questions to explain why BJP lost Modi made two good moves late last year by
in Delhi and why Kejriwal won. However, I can bringing in Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prab-
bet one thing: in all these questions, Kejriwal hu to his ministry. They added heft in a cabinet
will probably have scored higher on self-aware- seen as lacking serious talent beyond Arun Jait-
ness than Modi. And that may have made all the ley, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath
difference to the Delhi outcome. Singh. But it is inexplicable why an extraor-
dinarily capable man like Arun Shourie was
To be sure, Modi has shown an infinite capacity kept out. He can be Modi’s biggest asset in any
to reinvent himself in the past – he has come a ministry. Shourie is the true progenitor of the
long way from 2002. The question is whether telecom revolution, the man who untangled the
he has come a long way from 2014. 2015 is not wires of crony capitalism and made the telecom
2014. The challenges are completely different, policy work. He is the man who made disinvest-
thanks to his own terrific success in wooing the ment and privatisation a reality.
electorate in 2014. That has raised expectations
and benchmarks. Third, Modi needs to deal with his allies directly
using his personal political capital. Vajpayee
2015 is when Modi will have to ask harder ques- was able to run an unwieldy coalition largely
tions of himself than of the people who work for through the power of personality and his stat-
him. ure. Modi is not Vajpayee, but his prestige and
powers are no less. A direct approach to allies
For example, how is his talk of federalism go- – whether it is the estranged Shiv Sena or the
ing to be taken at face value if he does not give more amenable allies in Andhra Pradesh and
Kejriwal what he wants: full statehood for Delhi, elsewhere – will work wonders for his agenda
control of the police force, running the Delhi 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 ex-
ample, in Punjab his party is seriously compro-
mised 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 Bedi’s life:
Why BJP was routed in Delhi
Debobrat Ghose, February 11, 2015
K
iran Bedi’s political career seems to and then appreciating him after joining the BJP,
have ended even before it could take off. dented her credibility. “This is nothing but op-
Perhaps it won’t make much of a dif- portunism and one can’t fool voters now-a-days.
ference to her – she can dissociate herself from People understand everything,” said an analyst.
politics and get on with social work. What in-
trigues many though is how everything could go According to a party insider, “No one openly
against her. She is certainly no lightweight when opposed her as it was the decision of the PM to
it comes to public life. She has a strong brand project her as a CM candidate, but there was
value, is the country’s first woman IPS officer, an undercurrent of rebellion in the party. She
she is a Magsaysay award winner and was one failed to connect both with the party cadre and
of the leading figures in the Anna Hazare move- the masses.”
ment. So what went wrong?
Even after the massive electoral drubbing,
Bedi courted controversy by telling the media
on Tuesday, “It was not my loss…it was BJP’s
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 didn’t wait for
the Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was
10 minutes late to reach her residence.
“Instead of calling the senior party leaders,

Leadership requires a different set of skills. Her she should have gone to them and sought their
achievements can only be a value addition to support. She had already considered herself as
her leadership skills, it’s never the other way Delhi CM and this became apparent during her
round, say political analysts. They point out to campaigns. She failed to provide a positive lead-
five mistakes that saw her presiding over the ership to the party like Modi ji did during Lok
shameful rout of the BJP in the assembly polls. Sabha polls,” remarked a senior BJP member
on anonymity.
Failure to connect:
According to political analysts, Bedi’s commu- A touch of conceit:
nication and body language during her rallies According to the voters who attended her ral-
reeked of arrogance. Her comment on Kejriwal lies, these were “negative and full of conceit”.
not being invited on Republic Day “I think he
(Kejriwal) is playing sob sob. I think he must “Kejriwal directly spoke on our problems,
grow up” drew a lot of criticism in the media and what the AAP would do if they came to
and later became counter-productive for the power. Unlike her, there was no acrimony in
party. his speech. Bedi sounded more like a cop than
a would-be CM,” remarked Syed Kaiser of
By taking a U-turn on her earlier statements (on Ambedkar Nagar.
Twitter in 2012 & 2013) against Narendra Modi,
Bedi had thought that slamming Kejriwal would three weeks before the Delhi polls. Immediately
help her in wooing voters, but it didn’t happen. after joining the party, her naming as the CM
“I have 40 years of administrative experience candidate, didn’t go down well with the leaders
and that other man (Kejriwal) who is spread- and the members of Delhi BJP; especially by
ing lies has just five years of experience. He is those who had been working for the party for
'bhagoda' and will run away again," she had decades.
said while campaigning in Kirari constituency
of North-West Delhi. She described Kejriwal’s To make her a winning candidate, she was made
influence as “highly toxic and negative”. to contest from the safe assembly seat of Krish-
na Nagar, from where Union minister Dr Harsh
On the contrary, Kejriwal and team tactically Vardhan had been winning since 1993.
avoided calling names in general.
“First, the locals couldn’t accept the party’s
Even within the party, members feel that by decision of replacing Dr Harsh Vardhan from
campaigning in other constituencies, Bedi mini- this seat, who was also demoted in the Cabinet.
mized the winning possibility of the BJP. “She Second, Kiran Bedi was an outsider and the vot-
should have confined to her own constituency. ers wanted someone local. She failed to connect
Her initial speeches caused immense damage to with the locals and ultimately she lost this bat-
the BJP and the poll result confirmed it. During tle,” said Virender Raheja, a local resident.
poll rallies, she used to move as a commander
rather than a team leader,” a state BJP volun- Senior journalist and columnist Vir Sanghvi had
teer remarked. tweeted: “Kiran Bedi really is her own worst en-
emy. Does making her CM candidate still seem
I, me, myself: like a masterstroke?
Right from the party men to the voters, people
across the constituencies felt that she gave im- The Delhi poll result gave the answer.
mense importance to ‘self’ and almost on every
occasion, she spoke about her own achieve-
ments. Associating herself with the BJP’s de-
velopment 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?"
“It’s like playing your own trumpet. In her com-
munication 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 party’s fold hardly

Beware a Congress-mukt Bharat: AAP
is not the BJP counter that India needs
Hasan Suroor, February 11, 2015
W
hile Hosanas have deservedly been In recent months, there has been enough post-
raining on the Aam Aadmi Party mortem of the causes of Congress decline. I'll
(AAP) after its incredible perform- come to that later.
ance in the Delhi elections, and the BJP is being
comforted by its dazed and distraught support- First, the more pressing question of the longer-
ers, the Congress is mourning alone in what is term implications of the Congress collapse--a
arguably its worst moment of shame, after hav- situation in which a 135-year-old party--the
ing failed to win a single seat. 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 opin-
ion within it. It had a strong presence in all
states of the Union".
No tears are being shed for the party's humili- “The Congress imprint was so substantial that
ation that saw it wiped out in area after area even its rivals had to work within the ideologi-
where it had held sway until so recently. cal parameters set by the party and its leaders.
Thus, most parties who opposed the Congress
Indeed, if anything, there's a barely concealed still upheld welfarism, religious pluralism, and
sadistic glee even among its former supporters, non-alignment in foreign policy", he wrote but,
who are suggesting that the party it had it com- crucially, hastened to remind us that this was
ing, and that it is the architect of its own mis- before “the Congress converted itself into a fam-
fortunes. Nobody seems to wish to waste their ily firm" triggering its decline.
breath even discussing it.
So, what happens when such a force collapses
"What's there to discuss? Well, it’s is gone, it's without there being a credible alternative in
gone. Period," is a general reaction. place?
Yet, beyond the headlines about AAP victory The answer doesn't require much imagination
and BJP defeat, the real story of the Delhi or great insight into how politics works. There's
elections is where it leaves the Congress. Is it only one thing that can happen in such a situa-
the beginning of the end for India's Grand Old tion: a scramble among all manner of wannabes
Party? And should we be simply watching while to fill the vacuum caused by its destruction.
it is dying on its feet even if it only has itself to Since politics abhors a vacuum. All it needs for
blame for its shambolic state? 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 ideol- contemplated what would it have been like liv-
ogy or political vision. ing in a theocratic Hindu state like the one that
In fact, we have already seen how the political the BJP’s parent organisation, the RSS, wishes
scene has fragmented ever since the Congress to impose on India?
decline began way back in the 1970s. The space
vacated by it has been filled by mostly lumpen It’s important to point out that it is not as if
pretenders preening on the back of sectarian Muslims have been innocent victims of the Con-
policies.
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. I’ve consist-
ently questioned AAP’s ability to be a serious gress’s 'electoral secularism', a term used by a
long-distance runner, and I stick to it despite its former Muslim MP to reject the Congress.
brave showing in Delhi. If the Congress was able to make use of Muslims
in the name of secularism it was because the
AAP is all tactics, slogans and a lot of hot air. It Muslim leadership was willing to play ball with
has no clearly thought out programme, no road- it. There was a quid pro quo between Muslim
map, and no proper organisation at the grass- leaders and the Congress whereby in return for
roots. It is essentially a protest group which has delivering Muslim votes they were rewarded
converted itself into a political party to tap into with plum jobs, party tickets and nominations
public disillusionment with mainstream parties. to the Rajya Sabha.
And it feeds on negativity with floating voters as
its support base. Granted, Muslims have had reason to feel let
down by the Congress but in their desire to spite
None of this is the hallmark of a credible na- it, let them not cut off their own nose.
tional alternative to a party which, for all its
sins, has a cogent philosophy and a worldview; Now, to the catalogue of Congress sins: corrup-
a mass base even if it has been neglected and tion, mid governance, arrogance, dynastic rule
allowed to rust; and an instinctive feel for the and abuse of the idea of secularism which alien-
inherent cultural diversity of this country. ated both Muslims and Hindus.
This is where Muslims should worry whether There are elements of truth to all this, but the
their visceral anti-Congressism, which trans- popular narrative of an irredeemably corrupt,
lates into 'anyone but Congress' strategy is such dysfunctional, dynastic monster from which the
a good idea. No doubt, the Congress' record on country must be liberated (BJP's "Congress-
secularism is dire, but is there any other nation- mukt" Bharat) is a disingenuous caricature of a
al party which has a better record? party which may have gone out of steam for now
but has a history of some very solid achieve-
Indeed, the BJP –the only other national party ment. Achievements on which the foundation of
--doesn’t even like the idea of secularism and modern India stands.
would be happy drop the term from the con-
stitution if it had its way. Have Muslims ever In a more historically conscious society this

would have been seen as an attempt at rewrit- try’s political destiny to a combination of divi-
ing history but this being India, we are more in sive and pop-up 'secular' forces with no national
the realm of myth making than getting history opposition to check them a good idea?
right.
Think about it.
However, the point is not to enumerate Con-
gress party's achievements or defend its poli-
cies.
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 let’s ponder
over its implications. Is handing over the coun-

AAP wins but it won’t be an easy ride

AAP sweeps Delhi by its feet, but BJP and
Modi won’t make life easy for Kejriwal
S Murlidharan, February 10, 2015
A
AP's victory in Delhi Assembly elections
will definitely catapult the fledgling With the status of a rump government, AAP
party into the national center stage with would find it extremely difficult to deliver on its
non-Congress parties likely to woo it assiduous- manifesto. Law and order is a serious issue in
ly to take on the BJP both at the national and Delhi but the AAP government would be practi-
the state level. However, AAP’s real strength cally fighting crime and disorder with its hands
will be challenged soon in days to come. The tied behind its back. It is not as if the BJP would
BJP, smarting from the defeat, will try its best actively connive with criminals and lumpen ele-
to wreck the AAP government on every front, ments, but at the same time it will not make life
which shouldn’t be too difficult given the glori- easy for its incipient national arch rival AAP.
fied municipality status of the Delhi govern-
ment. 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 nation’s capital
should be under the central government. There
is considerable merit in that argument because
a nation’s capital plays host to foreign dignitar-
ies and guides foreign investments besides be-
ing the harbinger of happenings in other states.
Full statehood being granted to Delhi would be

used by Kejriwal to embarrass the BJP govern-
ment at the Centre especially in the eyes of for-
eign governments that are warming upto Modi.
In short, BJP would not give Kejriwal the stick
to beat it with. Instead it would do everything
The BJP government in Haryana will definitely in its power to project the fledgling party in bad
up the ante and refuse to give water to Delhi on light so that AAP’s success in retrospect turns
some pretext or the other. Delhi produces prac- out to be a flash in the pan.
tically nothing except services and the notable
exceptions of pollution and noise. It is depend- The question is also whether the AAP will be
ent on other states for its supply of water, pow- able to replicate its success in other places. The
er, vegetables and just about everything needed answer to this seminal question will depend on
in the humdrum of daily life. what the AAP does in the days ahead. It has to
go for an image makeover. It is cast in a rebel-
Full statehood to Delhi is now certainly not on lious mould that endears itself to youth in par-
the cards because doing that under the AAP ticular, who carries no baggage and celebrates
regime would be suicidal for the BJP. BJP is novelty.
already being pilloried for committing several
blunders, including not holding the Delhi polls But in the long run, it should have a positive
while still flush from the Lok Sabha victory, and agenda that goes beyond subsidies. Electricity
it is not likely to commit one more by offering tariff cannot be halved across the board unless
a prize that would make the AAP preen with the government is ready to empty its coffers.
pride. 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 considera-
tions still rule the roost. Regional parties still
hold sway. In Bihar, AAP would find it extreme-
ly 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
N
ew Delhi: The AAP got it absolutely ernment, especially if they choose it with lots of
right during the election campaign expectations and hopes.
when it raised two slogans: Paanch
Saal, Kejriwal; and BJP half, Congress saaf. The people of Delhi have overturned the ver-
dict 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 gov-
ernment. The Delhi mandate can imply that vot-
ers 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.
With the results now indicating just three seats
for the BJP and none for the Congress, it can be When Modi had completed six months in
said that the voter has reduced Narendra Modi’s power, Firstpost had pointed out that the eu-
party to half of the Congress tally (8) in 2013. phoria around him was almost similar to the
hype around Rajiv Gandhi’s first few months
In a repeat of the Lok Sabha verdict, the prin- in power. But Rajiv became unpopular within
cipal opposition party has not even won ten just a few months because he failed to live up to
percent of the seats. It may have to depend on people’s expectations and his own image.
Arvind Kejriwal’s mercy for the leader of the op-
position slot. Rahul Gandhi, who was denied the Similarly, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav
privilege in the Lok Sabha, must be smiling. had registered landslide victories just a few
years ago in their states. But they started losing
So, as in life, what goes around comes around popular support within a few months. In Rajas-
in politics. And this is the biggest lesson of the than and Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP got
election for the BJP and also for Kejriwal. a massive mandate in 2013, even a beleaguered
Congress is showing healthy signs of revival.
“It is very scary, I am afraid because of the big
verdict. The BJP and the Congress suffered be- Clearly, Kejriwal will have to hit the ground
cause of their hubris; if we repeat their mistake running. He can’t afford to wait for five years to
the people of Delhi will teach us a lesson after be taught a lesson. In Indian politics even five
five years,” Kejriwal said, during his victory months is a long time and he is starting on the
speech at the party headquarters. right note with the fear of voters in his heart.
Kejriwal has got it absolutely right. But he may But, the bigger learnings are for the BJP. Ac-
be making a mistake for believing that voters cording to reports, soon after the exit polls
now take five years to become angry with a gov- indicated a massive win for the AAP, Amit Shah

held a meeting with several top leaders of the One, ask for paanch saal, but start showing
party. This was, incidentally, the first time he results in paanch months.
bothered to even consult his colleagues in the Two, seek votes with humility on the basis of
party. From the dictatorial hubris of paradrop- your agenda and manifesto; not by talking
ping Kiran Bedi on the cadre, Shah came down about your naseeb.
to terra firma earth by realising the importance Three, some suits can cost more than Rs 10
of internal democracy. This is a good beginning lakh. Next time somebody gifts one, auction it
for the party, where the Modi-Shah duo has so for a public cause.
far been taking decisions after just speaking to Four, learn to take everybody along, including
each other on the phone. Ramzaadas and the kind that irritate Sadhvi
Niranjan Jyoti.
The 54 percent vote share—almost unprec- Five, never ask voters to send a politician to a
edented in the history of our first-past-the-post jungle. You never know when you may have to
system—of the AAP would also force Modi to invite him home for a cup of tea, and pour it in
ponder over how the party of a humble ‘chai- his cup, just like for Obama.
walah’ has been rejected by almost two-third of Six, learn to listen to critics. Not every opinion
the voters in Delhi. 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 per-
fect sample for conducting a survey of the mood
of the nation. As Modi rightly said at a rally re-
cently, what Delhi wants, India also wants; what
is in Delhi’s heart is also in India’s heart.
So, here is what Delhi is saying about what is in

the heart of India:

Delusion posing as reality: AAP’s biggest
challenge is to deliver on its manifesto
E
ditor's note: This article has been re- an entire laundry list of what people from vari-
published given the Aam Aadmi Party is ous parts of Delhi want and aggregated these
on its way to an overwhelming victory into a manifesto.
in the Delhi Assembly elections.
The BJP, perhaps wisely, has abandoned the
If there is one thing you can be sure of in the idea of launching a full-fledged manifesto,
Delhi assembly polls of 7 February, it is this: it though a vision document is certainly planned.
will not depend on how much effort a party has On the other hand, AAP has given its manifesto
put into its manifesto. the full treatment. It is all things to all people,
and has such lofty aims that it is essentially de-
lusion posing as vision.
If elected, AAP tells us, it will demand full state-

hood 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 500-
1,000 households). It will build Delhi’s own
power plant, create 500 new schools and 20
new colleges, quadruple the number of second-
ary and tertiary public hospital beds, recruit
4,000 doctors and 15,000 paramedics, build
two lakh public toilets, invest in public trans-
port, and generally abolish contract labour
Election trends usually pivot around one or two everywhere.
central issues. The micro-casting of small ben-
efits to every segment of the electorate is hardly In other words, Arvind Kejriwal plans to build
relevant. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was a socialist paradise in Delhi at huge cost. And
probably decided on two basic issues – the aura yes, he will do what he did the last time in his
of competent leadership personified by Naren- 49-day government: give every household 700
dra Modi (in contrast with the effete Manmohan litres of free water and cut electricity tariffs by
Singh and his bumbling UPA government), and 50 percent. And, of course, he will legislate the
the promise of development and achche din. draconian Jan Lokpal bill so that the corrupt
The Congress party had, in fact, come up with are reined in.
a better-crafted manifesto. The BJP was the
last to come up with one, and that too when the In a 42-page manifesto, the question of how all
election process was well underway. The BJP this extravaganza is going to be funded gets al-
manifesto had no impact on the result. Beyond most no mention. The only indication that AAP
the media, no one gave it much importance. The will somehow try and marry finite resources
BJP still won. with infinite promises comes towards the end,
where it solves the equation with two glib state-
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fallen into the ments.
trap of believing that offering 1,000 promises
is better than focusing on the one or two things First, the manifesto claims (unconvincingly)
that really matter in an election. It has built up that “the common theme across all policy in-

terventions is the following motto: big change the sabhas will come under the jurisdiction of
without big spending.” It is good to know that the three BJP-run corporations, and they surely
power plants, hospitals and schools can be built cannot be kept out of the decision-making.
without much moolah. These corporations were elected in 2012, and
have an elected life till 2017.
Then comes the humble admission: “However,
we know our limitations, and realise that the Third, AAP talks of setting up its own power
only way to deliver our promises is to look for plant to take care of the peak load of 6,200 mw
innovative solutions, spend efficiently and raise in the national capital. Delhi city clearly cannot
revenue.” house this plant, for no urban centre can run
a coal-fired unit within its domain for fear of
Ah, finally some realism. The only hint of an pollution. a gas-based unit will push up power
“innovative solution” turns out to be the dis- costs. This means the power plant will have to
covery of a hidden goldmine (landmine?). AAP come up in some other state which has the coal
apparently has discovered about 200 acres of reserves to support it. Reliance Power in Mum-
unused land with the Delhi Urban Shelter Im- bai gets a part of its power from Dahanu. But
provement Board in Kasturba Niketan, Sawda Dahanu is part of the same state (Maharashtra).
Ghewra and Balaswa, which could be used Delhi will need the cooperation of some other
for building housing for the middle and lower state to house its power plant, which will supply
classes. power not to that state, but to Delhi. Given the
acrimony with which Kejriwal has been han-
Well, it is unlikely that AAP will find too many dling all political parties, one wonders how he
of these hidden tracts of free land any time is going to get these permissions. Or the money
soon. We have to wait for the party to come to to build the power plant, if he is going to halve
power – if that is what is in store for Delhi-ites power tariffs, an issue on which the discoms will
on 10 February – to learn what other innovative surely go to court.
ideas it can come up with.
Fourth, AAP wants to build lots of houses for
However, a cursory look at the some of the the poor, and it will also need land for Kejriwal’s
more important things AAP has promised or various public projects (from 200,000 toilets to
demanded (from the central government) shows 500 schools to hospitals). But the party is op-
that beyond the promises, not much has been posed to changes in the Land Acquisition Act
thought through. that the NDA government has proposed to make
land easier to acquire. Delhi needs land from all
For example, AAP wants control of the Delhi surrounding states, and this job is done by the
police. Let’s assume, the centre agrees to hand centre using the Delhi Development Authority
it over. But will Delhi be able to bear the annual (DDA).
cost of over Rs 5,000 crore to run this police
force, when its overall budget is just Rs 36,700 It is difficult to see how the centre is going to
crore, a significant chunk of which is already hand over DDA to Kejriwal. Of course, he can
being devolved to the New Delhi Municipal start dharnas on each of his demands – for full
Corporation, and the three constituents of the statehood, for control of the police, for owner-
Municipal Corporation of Delhi? It is unlikely ship of the DDA, etc – but then he is likely to
the centre will both hand over control of the po- fall into the same trap of being seen as an anar-
lice and the money to run it. Kejriwal will have chist who does not govern and is forever hitting
to find his own funds. the streets.
Second, Kejriwal and AAP airily talk about Kiran Bedi has an easier task of getting these
creating over 3,000 mohalla sabhas in order things done with the help of the centre.
to devolve decision-making to the bottom of
the pyramid. But can the state do this with- Fifth, the mohalla sabhas could well become
out consulting its own municipal bodies, all of unmanageable if they are dominated by rogue
which are run by the BJP? A significant part of political elements. It is not easy for ordinary cit-

izens to spare the kind of time and effort needed So, forget the manifesto. The Delhi election is
every month to discuss every issue concerning probably going to be decided on one or two key
their locality. Check how many housing society issues, not the raft of promises made by Kejri-
members even turn up for an annual general wal.
meeting. If enough public-spirited people are
not there to manage the mohalla sabhas, they One key issue could be whether electing an AAP
will come to be dominated by political or fringe government will end up creating a permanent
elements, from Maoists to local toughs to party atmosphere of strife with the centre for the next
workers. Empowering 3,000-3,500 mohalla five years. Paanch Saal Kejriwal may be fine for
sabhas may sound nice and democratic, but this some citizens, but not Paanch Saal Dharna or
needs the development of a citizen spirit first. Paanch Saal Kenrda-Rajya takkar.
Delhi, as an collective of people from different
parts of India, has little of that right now. One The problem with the AAP manifesto is that it is
can also visualise party politics vitiating their not achievable if AAP builds itself up as an anti-
functioning – and party involvement is more BJP, anti-centre party. This may weigh heavily
than likely if funds are going to be devolved to in voters’ minds even if their heart is sometimes
such sabhas. If other parties see AAP activists with AAP.
dominating these sabhas, they will muscle in
too. The last thing we need is politicking and
street aggression going down to the local mo-
halla level.
Sixth, the economic part of the manifesto prom-

ises 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 revo-
lutionary, 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 import-
based resellers. They buy their stuff from China
and merely label them as theirs. Manufacturing
employment is falling in Delhi.

Aaptard wars: What Kejriwal’s supporters
can learn from Modi and his bhakts
Sandip Roy, February 11, 2015
A
APtard and Proud!!! tous fall in the use of the hashtag #AAPtard.”
That’s what Raghu Ram of Roadies fame Only Dr. Subramanian Swamy seems to be
tweeted out accompanied by a beaming picture gamely keeping the social media battle going
as the steamroller verdict from Delhi rolled in. 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 there’s been any immediately measura-

ble impact of the great electoral victory in Delhi
it’s been in the abuse-meter on social media.
@SonaliRanade tweets “Twitter records precipi-

Now that’s more than a little self-centred to as- him saying Kejriwal would be invited to Bedi’s
sume that AAP supporters’ days revolve around swearing-in ceremony as CM. How sweet it
trolling the redoubtable Dr. Swamy but it’s also must feel for Kejriwal to now turn the tables and
not surprising that the Internet will become the invite Modi to his own swearing in instead.
Ground Zero for the gloating fiesta.
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 apol-
ogy 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 statesman-
like 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 oppo-
One of the great fallouts of the electoral battles nents gave back as good as they got. AAP put up
of the last couple of years – from Delhi 2013 posters with Kejriwal as “imandar” and Kiran
to Lok Sabha 2014 – has been the transforma- Bedi as “avsarvadi” (opportunist) after the BJP
tion of social media and comment boards into a dared AAP to use Bedi’s poster on their cam-
Kurukshetra of sorts where each side competes paign materials. The BJP promptly put out a
in laying on the vitriol. booklet calling Kejriwal the betrayer.
Now the fruits of victory, especially victory This is only to be expected. In election cam-
beyond imagination, taste that much sweeter paigns where candidates do not actually have
when hashtagged on the Internet and rubbed to formally debate the issues, a poster war of
into the handles of the other side. insults and screaming heads on television talk
shows are what passes for debate.
But if anything this could be a moment for
Arvind Kejriwal to learn and reinforce one of Modi is a pugnacious campaigner and his mock-
the great failings of Narendra Modi. While Modi ing jibes worked well for him on the Lok Sabha
cannot have been expected to be the moral campaign trail as he launched broadsides at
policeman of his most obstreperous followers, the “shehzada” and “AK-49”. But as PM he
he could have led by example when it came to would have done well to dampen the enthu-
laying down standards of decorum and civility. siasm of some of his more truculent followers
And most importantly pulling up those in his as they amped up the insult war against their
own base who came up short. opponents. Otherwise now by the logic of min-
ister Giriraj Singh, much of Delhi’s electorate
While it hardly behooves a senior leader like should be buying themselves one-way tickets to
Swamy to routinely use AAPtard in his tweets, Pakistan. It’s not Giriraj Singh’s over-the-top
Modi and his associates did not cover them- pronouncement that stands out as does Modi’s
selves with glory by not inviting Arvind Kejriwal lukewarm reaction to it. If anything, he just dis-
on Republic Day either. 49-day-wonder or not, tances himself from the unpleasantness without
he was the erstwhile CM of Delhi and deserved actually cracking down on it. It creates an abid-
an invitation. ing impression of a man who can wilfully shut
his eyes to the excesses of his fans while trying
As Uttam Sengupta points out on Outlook, to be above it all.
Kiran Bedi said if Kejriwal wanted an invite
he needed to join the BJP. Amit Shah mocked 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.
"It’s scary. This huge mandate begets responsi-

bility in its wake. I would like to request all par-
ty 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 it’s a good
omen he will take his oath on 14 February oth-
erwise 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
B
eta come home. All is forgiven. And here of the vote. While the Congress and its leader-
is a giant red carpet to welcome you ship stands discredited, it does not mean that
back. the values that the party stood for have lost all
currency. The great albatross around its neck
That's the resounding message the Delhi remains the reluctant prince at its helm. Since
electorate has given to prodigal son Arvind that handicap does not show any signs of disap-
Kejriwal.A chastened Kejriwal spent much of pearing, the chances for any miraculous recov-
his Lok Sabha campaign on the defensive about ery in the Congress’ fortunes seem bleak.
his brief 49-day encounter with power and
responsibility. Now that the electorate has given But one party's blight could be easily seen as
him another chance -- and how -- Kejriwal is another party's gain. A populist party like the
rightfully scared of what they expect him to do Aam Aadmi Party preaching a mixed gospel of
with it. anti-corruption, transparency and subsidies
for the poor could aim to occupy the Congress
vacuum.It would be easy to think that if displac-
ing 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 decima-
tion of the Congress Party, had said in an inter-
view “The Aam Aadmi Party will become Con-
gress Mark 2 – non-dynastic, modern, slightly
Here's, however, what AAP shouldn't do with left of centre, bit of Gandhian heritage in the
this magical second chance: Try and become the topi, and a younger party.” Therein could lie a
next Congress party. tempting way forward for AAP.
While Kejriwal has shown no signs of imagin- Perhaps but to don that avatar over the next five
ing himself as the next Modi -- a point he was years would be a Varanasi-sized blunder.
careful to make on the trail but refusing to take
the PM head on -- but AAP could easily imagine AAP has been given a chance to build a proto-
itself to be a new alternative to the Congress. type of the kind of state government Kejriwal
More so given given that the grand old party has been promising – people-oriented, secular-
seems to be on a suicidal mission of self-ex- minded, attentive to the needs of the little guy,
tinction. It is hard to imagine how a party can honest, clean and efficient, not in the pockets of
recover from a grand total of zero seats. big business. This in itself promises to be a great
task -- as Mamata Banerjee has discovered in
The Congress won only 44 seats in the last elec- Bengal.
tion but it had about 19.3 percent of the vote
share. The BJP won 282 with just 31 percent She too had some of the same left-of-centre

populist rhetoric that AAP has employed suc- of regional pride. AAP is actually the opposite.
cessfully in Delhi. She also succeeded in poach- It’s never played the local card, or spoken spe-
ing a lot of Congress voters and legislators into cifically as a Delhi party, and has instead articu-
her kitty. But once in government, Didi flailed. lated the city's concerns in the broadest terms
She needs the industrialists and investors who possible. A rhetoric of governance that speaks to
could be demonised as fat cats during an elec- voters across the nation.
tion campaign and has been wooing them with
mixed results. And that's just fine as long as AAP realises that
its national appeal does not make it a national
One could see the entire Saradha debacle as a party, at least, not yet.
commentary on the sorry state of Bengal’s econ-
omy that a chit fund company could become so Arvind Kejriwal has been given a very rare
powerful and so enmeshed in the state’s politi- chance in politics. His victory in 2013 as a
cal and cultural echelons. And let's not forget, fledgling political party was historic and now his
Mamata too once dreamed of national domina- return from the ashes so quickly is equally his-
tion, of turning the Trinamool party into a rival toric. But to not botch it again, (and the BJP will
of the BJP, much as Mayawati did when BSP be waiting in the wings very eager to trip him
was riding high. up) he will have to ensure he does not bite off
more than he can chew. And the first lesson will
AAP and Kejriwal would be foolish to be swayed be for the party to look long and hard at itself in
by that pipe dream. the mirror. It may have got the Congress votes,
but it’s not quite the grand old party yet.
Sagarika Ghose writes “(AAP) is Delhi’s regional
party, it is to Delhi what the Shiv Sena was once Delhi is in its grasp but India door ast.
to Mumbai. AAP’s anti-VIP rhetoric is as much
a unique Delhi phenomenon as the Sena’s anti-
outsider rhetoric was in Mumbai.”
That makes AAP a curious beast – a regional
party wearing a national party’s clothes. It’s
been easy to not recognise AAP's Delhi-centric
identity this because a regional party is usually
marked by some chest-thumping regional chau-
vinism. Whether it’s AIADMK or Trinamool or
Shiv Sena, all are founded on a certain bedrock

Ready, set, slow: Can AAP avoid the
pitfalls that come with absolute power?
Mahesh Vijaypurkar, February 11, 2015
I
t wasn’t a mere undercurrent but a wave tial poker player, and likes to serve his revenge
that propelled the Aam Aadmi Party into cold.
the Delhi Assembly.
Since Delhi is about half a state it will be de-
All types of clichés have been used to describe pendent on the Centre for most things – land,
AAP's victory, which has not only seen the revenue, law and order etc – so some tact would
decimation of BJP and the Congress, but left the help. Of course, Modi will have to understand
law-making body without even the semblance that that AAP won on a positive vote and be
of an Opposition. These 63 out of 70 seats is cautious, avoiding playing any Centre versus
a proportion higher than the BJP’s in the Lok Delhi state game.
Sabha. No doubt this makes for euphoria. But
this should not lead to hubris as a characteristic It is possible that AAP's scale of victory may
of the David-like party. 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 As-
sembly, both Congress and BJP can play oppo-
sition on the streets.
Here are a few of those amber lights:
Having a majority, much like the NTR’s 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.
The mandate has dispelled the notion that Like Yogendra Yadav said on NDTV even as the
AAP’s constituency was only the underbelly leads were rolling in, the government would
and has shown that its voters come from across do well only to initially pluck the low-hanging
classes. Why voters changed their preferences fruits like starting schools and hospitals which
so overwhelmingly after the sweep they allowed were already sanctioned. Thereafter, opt for
the BJP is not an exhibition of voters’ fickle- sure-footed governance.
ness but a strong nudge to Narendra Modi that
tangibles were not delivered in Delhi under Nor, having created a space for itself mainly by
President’s Rule. Voters are impatient and this totally decimating the Congress, or successfully
is something that AAP has to note. combating the BJP in an unequal battle, should
the AAP consider itself the next opposition mes-
No doubt Narendra Modi has gracefully called siah across the country.
Arvind Kejriwal to congratulate him and will
meet him for tea. Given the support that flowed – at least verbally
– from JD(U), CPM, and Trinamool, the AAP
AAP should realise that while the prime minis- could be tempted into trying to join the leader-
ter is a decisive leader, he is also the quintessen- ship of a larger opposition alliance. It is coming

to power in Delhi is mainly because it contested Kejriwal has himself harped on the fact that
their kind of politics, not mere anti-Congres- good governance is all about being honest in
sism. 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 dissatis-
faction 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
The first thing to do is for the AAP Government become a habit to fell the mighty.
to reintroduce the Janlokpal Bill which the Con-
gress had scuttled and BJP voted against, and In 2013, the lower strata of Delhi expressed
which led to the end of the AAP rule in 49 days. hopes in Kejriwal and voted in his favour; areas
with larger slum pockets – or swaths? – went
This will set the cat amongst the pigeon across with the AAP. They now have a presence across
the states and provide a new rallying point for 67 of the 70 constituencies which imply that
the AAP outside Delhi. AAP, which seeks to those in Lutyens’ Delhi have little appreciation
reform politics, pitching the citizen against the of the concerns of the vast population. Had it
professional politician, shouldn’t risk moving been otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a
out of this new paradigm. need for an AAP. Voters would have then been
comfortable with BJP or even the Congress.
People are unlikely to be satisfied with slow or
negligible delivery on promises. That is why The just ended election has been a fight against
they punished Modi. the entrenched ways of traditional politicians,
unchallenged till 2013. That is why the election
Arvind Kejriwal will have to learn ways to de- resonated across the country unlike any state
liver quickly but not in a rush, at least cost, election normally would. It was, despite a legis-
because impatience among voters for securing lative assembly of its own, has to be seen largely
their due is getting stronger by the day. Modi’s as a city’s municipality. The centre calls the
promises and the absence of felt outcomes may shots on most things. The Economist had once
have been one reason why the BJP was slaugh- likened its then chief minister Sheila Dikshit a
tered. A measure of governance is the level of mayor.
satisfaction at the receiving end.
The city which is a state, cannot ignore, as Dr
The election outcome points to the remarkable Mukulika Banerjee noted in a recent article
rise in expectations of what governance ought in The Guardian, those “who keep Delhi run-
to be. Of quick relief from long-pending issues ning, working in the vast informal economy
like petty corruption, poor housing and abysmal that services the shiny coat of the beast”. She is
civic services, and other things that making an an associate professor at the London School of
individual’s life miserable. Even these, apart Economics and the author of Why India Votes?
from ending the deep rooted hafta raj need to This election has “it has forced voters to choose
be attended to over time. Mohalla Committee not just between one party and another, but also
sessions would have given the party a fair idea between one kind of politics and another”
of the gigantic task ahead.

Here is a long quote from her article (read In short, the seething underbelly cannot be told
here): that they will get their sewer lines and drinking
water and even their well-serviced toilets over
“So the stakes are big in this small election time but they had better be satisfied with the
because it has raised a fundamental question – stadia, the flyovers, the broad roads, and even
what kind of politics do Indians want? Do they Lutyens Delhi.
desire a political establishment that caters to
the few who bob on the surface or do they want In fact, the obscene display of power and grand-
a party that unashamedly prioritises the needs ness of Lutyens Delhi as a metaphor for power
of the majority below? A politics that cannot and the deprivation elsewhere in the same city
account for 75% of their funding or one that as- should have incited a class war long ago. But
pires to total transparency? A politics that can fortunately, this angst has been sublimated into
plaster the city with expensive advertisements a possible election verdict.
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?”

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 tive politics which aims to be a principle and
experience so can’t govern; will run away principled force in national politics. At the same
again; the Centre will not cooperate; where time, we cannot do it overnight. The journey
will he get the money from?’ are some of the from where we are to where we would like to be
predictions and questions we have heard since is a journey that needs to be carefully charted
the AAP victory in Delhi. for which we have to sit down and decide on a
roadmap about electoral strategies in different
His critics expect him to trip, destroy the states. As of now, we have not decided on that
economy with his populist schemes and fight strategy,” Yadav told The Hindu soon after the
incessantly with the Centre for funds and ad- Delhi verdict.
ministrative issues. All this is possible and if so,
its results would be disastrous for Kejriwal and He said almost the same thing to The Times of
Delhi. India on Wednesday but added five states his
party could be eyeing—Punjab, Rajasthan, Mad-
hya 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.
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 peo-
ple. For just as the AAP went back to voters in
Delhi on the basis of Kejriwal’s performance
But, here is a question: What if Kejriwal suc- in 49 days, the party would now be banking on
ceeds as a chief minister? What if he lives up to the new government’s success for its pan-India
the expectations and silences his critics? push.
This question is important because of another Winning an election is just a starting point in
question that has been discussed since 10 Feb- democracy. The real test of a political party
ruary: Will AAP now go national? is governance, which is where the AAP has a
questionable record. Though he has shown the
Yogendra Yadav and his colleagues have made it ability to win an election twice, Kejriwal has to
clear that the AAP has no intentions of remain- now prove that he also has a viable model of
ing a regional party. It wants to scale up and governance that is different in its approach and
contest elections in other parts of the country. solutions.
The intent is clear, only the timing is to be de-
cided. Naturally, if he decides to launch a campaign
for other territories without securing his base,
“In the long run, we see AAP as a party which it could be disastrous. Like Babar, who left
has a national purpose. It is not a regional Ferghana to conquer Samarkand and lost both,
political party. It is an experiment in alterna- Kejriwal too may lose all his political capital.
social media to their benefit. If it already hasn’t,
This means, as Yadav pointed out, Kejriwal is the jhadoo will soon become a recognizable
unlikely to bite the bait of Bihar, where elec- symbol across India.
tions are just a few months away; or respond
to the Trinamool Congress’ flirtatious gesture The party’s biggest headache will be to find
of unilateral support. For the next few months identifiable faces in other states, especially
his focus will only be on delivering some of the those with large rural populations where urban,
promises in his manifesto. suave leaders find it difficult to connect with the
masses. In Rajasthan, for instance, when the
Without denying the importance of first deliver- party contested the Lok Sabha polls, it couldn’t
ing in Delhi, it is not difficult to see why AAP find a single leader who had the potential to
is eyeing other states. In the history of India, become its face in the state. Taking on a mass
except for the last Moghuls, no ruler remained leader like Vasundhara Raje will be a huge chal-
confined to just Delhi. Unlike many other states, lenge in the absence of a popular face.
Delhi is a microcosm of India and the choices
its people make are indeed a pointer to what The BJP’s failure in Delhi has shown that a
is happening in the rest of the country. So, the popular local leader is indispensable. You may
AAP is justified in taking the Delhi model to have a hugely popular national leader like
other states, especially where the Congress is Narendra Modi but when it comes to assembly
the only existing option against the BJP and its elections, voters relate only to someone who
allies. identifies with their problems and is capable of
addressing them. To expect Kejriwal to help the
Politics can never be uni-polar. If the Congress AAP win an election in Rajasthan would be tan-
continues to remain irrelevant, people will look tamount to repeating the Modi disaster in Delhi.
for a suitable alternative in BJP-ruled states.
It would be naïve to think that the AAP will be We will get more hints of Kejriwal’s future plans
reluctant to step into this vacuum. when his cabinet is announced. If he decides to
have a deputy CM, it will be a clear signal that
The AAP’s next big move could be in Punjab, he is grooming a successor in Delhi and eyeing a
where it emerged as the second-largest party in national role for himself.
the 2014 elections, winning four seats and giv-
ing 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.
Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshiram had

once said that a party needs at least three elec-
tions 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: Kejriwal’s full
Delhi statehood demand could backfire
B
e careful what you ask for, because you automatically means that Delhi has to be bifur-
just might get it. Mohammed Ali Jinnah cated if one part of it is to receive full statehood.
demanded a separate Pakistan for Mus- There is no way any central government will al-
lims - and he got one, a "moth-eaten" one, to low a state to control its offices, establishments,
use his own evocative expression. cantonments and services.
So the first implication of Kejriwal’s demand

for statehood is bifurcation. And by bifurca-
tion 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, every-
thing.
So the Delhi police will have to be split between

the new full state of Delhi and a central autono-
mous mini-state that will constitute the national
capital (which will house all cantonments and
central offices, including the country's presi-
dent, the Prime Minister, the MPs, the ministers
Arvind Kejriwal is perfectly within his rights to and the bureaucracy). It will also mean split-
demand full statehood for Delhi. And there is no ting the Delhi Development Authority, and a
reason to deny it to him. Why should Delhi not new water sharing agreement involving the two
get powers what other states automatically get? residual entities, among other things.
But Kejriwal should also know that, like Jinnah,
he will get a “moth-eaten” Delhi. If he under- To be sure, some kind of bifurcation already ex-
stands that, then Narendra Modi should give it ists - but it is horizontal in nature - with police
to him. and land being run by the centre, and municipal
and other services by the state. What Kejriwal
Like Beelzebub's famous quote in Milton's is demanding will merely make the bifurca-
Paradise Lost, Kejriwal may well reckon that it tion vertical - a separation of centre from state,
is "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." geographically, resource-wise and emotionally.
Not that Delhi is any kind of heaven right now Kejriwal’s full-state Delhi will not be today’s
for anybody except the Lutyens elite, but it is Delhi.
less of a hell because it gets more taxpayer re-
sources than any other city in India. But there are other implications of demanding
full statehood that Kejriwal should be aware of
Here's why full statehood means a moth-eaten before asking for the moon and sixpence.
Delhi, and why Kejriwal's party may also be the
wrong one to run it, unless he changes course: First, as a full state of the Indian Union, Delhi
will no longer be eligible to live off the central
Delhi is by and large a city-state. But it is also government's current subsidies. The rest of
the capital of India. Since it is not possible for India can pay to run a central government, but
the central government to come under a state not another state government, including its po-
government's administrative jurisdiction, it lice. Delhi is India's richest state, and thus has

to rely on its own resources for growth and to of government. But Kejriwal has been talking
provide services to its citizens. just the opposite: empowering "gram" and "mo-
halla sabhas” that can realistically decide only
Second, apart from Delhi’s value-added taxes, things like where to store the garbage or stop a
the primary revenue earners for a city-state neighbourhood brothel. Mohalla sabhas cannot
are taxation of services, entry, exit and parking become the driving structures of an urbanised,
charges on vehicles, and property. Land rents, knowledge-driven future state which may con-
annual property taxes, and vehicle taxes will tinue to receive a huge influx of underfed, illit-
have to go up when Delhi achieves statehood. erate, and unskilled or semi-skilled migrants. It
This is because in future, Delhi will have to pay is a recipe for chaos.
for its own law and order costs, including po-
licemen. More money will also have to be raised Delhi will have to think of a corporatised and
for investing in public transport. The Delhi top-down governance structure like Singapore
Metro will have to charge more or be subsidised or Shanghai. It needs a CEO – which Kejriwal
by the state. 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 qual-
ity public services, especially in a super-diverse
city like Delhi. Delhi’s babu culture is particu-
larly 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 subsi-
Third, city-states cannot be traditional manu- dised. Delhi can set up its own power plants,
facturing centres as they will be unviable and but these will have to be based on clean gas or
polluting. Cities tend to attract higher wages renewable sources - both more expensive. Coal-
than non-urban centres, and this automati- based power will have to be bought from other
cally means only high-value adding, automated states - at market rates.
manufacturing or non-polluting industries and
services can be set up there. But these kinds of Full statehood means Kejriwal will have to
jobs need skilled manpower and a knowledge abandon his dreams of cutting tariffs for power
base, which means attracting high-income and giving free water to all and sundry. A rich
knowledge workers and not the hoi-polloi of the city-state can afford to pay, and it should.
rest of India. But these are precisely the people
(the Poorvanchalis, the minorities) who lifted Sixth, as a city-state which is hemmed in by
Kejriwal’s mandate from a sedate majority to an three other states, Delhi will ultimately run out
overwhelming one. The underclass has a big- of land. The benefits of Delhi's sprawling growth
ger claim on his resources than the middle and will go to the contiguous states of Haryana, UP
upper classes – but it is the latter who will build and Rajasthan - as it already does - and Delhi's
the new Delhi. residential growth will have to come vertically.
This means Delhi has to think Singapore, not
Fourth, city-states need different governance spatial growth.
structures compared to normal states with a
mix of the rural and urban. No successful city- All of this can be done. It all depends on wheth-
state can attract talent and skilled workers with- er Kejriwal wants to run a city or a state.
out running a very efficient, corporatised form

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 hin-
terland 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 city-

state of Delhi?

The Twitter verdict

Delhi results: Three charts to show
how the election played out on Twitter
Y
esterday AAP and Arvind Kejriwal won Let's not forget that Arvind Kejriwal began the
the Delhi election with a historic 67 seats election day on Twitter by putting out a video
out of 70, and decimated all opposition. he had done with the comedy group The Viral
While BJP managed to scrape only 3 seats, even Fever which got retweeted nearly 3.1k times.
BJP's CM candidate Kiran Bedi lost from the
party stronghold of Krishna Nagar, The Con- The other tweet by Kejriwal that won all hearts
gress was wiped out, winning zero seats. 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 mas-

sive interest with trends like #KejriwalonTVF,
#DelhiDecides,#AAPSweep, #AAPStorm all
dominating. A day after the election result,
#AAPSweep is still one of the top trends. Ac-
cording 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 immi-
nent 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 impos-
sible, 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 BJP’s 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
T
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 analy-
sis of why BJP lost and how AAP won in such a historic way. However given India's love for Bolly-
wood, 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 victori-
ous 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 call-
ing 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
N
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 re-
duced 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
T
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 67-
seat 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 elec-
tion 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 Com-
mittee. 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 Kejri-
wal. If Kejriwal could manage to defeat three-time Congress CM Sheila Dikshit in the 2013 Assem-
bly elections, Kiran Walia was no match.
A former minister in Dikshit's cabinet, Walia had challenged Kerjiwal's candidature in court rais-
ing 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 candida-
ture 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 candi-
date 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 repre-
sented 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 Delhi’s truly
modern, aam aurat ‘first lady’ Sunita Kejriwal
Piyashree Dasgupta, February 12, 2015
J
ust as Twitter started to sound a little familiar with.
drunk with glee and shock after the Aam
Aadmi Party raced to victory in the Delhi While Kejriwal was quick to warn his party
polls, the picture that caught the fancy of the In- members to not develop hubris soon after the
ternet was not one of AAP supporters gobbling results came out, he also thanked the single
laddoos or Kejriwal sans a muffler. It was of a most important person in his life profusely. In
woman, Sunita Kejriwal, hardly recognisable fact, while he didn't sound a victory horn on
to the thousands of AAP voters and their many Twitter, he made it a point to thank Sunita.
other fans across the country.
Clad in a simple orange printed salwar kameez,
Arvind Kejriwal - the shrieking, complaining, the first significant picture of the future Delhi
one-dialogue-a-second bunch of nerves as we chief minister's wife was that of an aam aurat
know him - did something we hardly associate and the media was quick to spot it too. The
him, or any other politician in the country, with. Economic Times' headlined a profile feature
As the shutterbugs went into a tizzy, he locked on Sunita Kejriwal as the 'Aam Aurat behind
his wife in a spontaneous embrace. India’s uncommon man'.
Despite being familiar with the sight of wives "I would not have been able to achieve anything
and families of politicians making appearances without her. I can do nothing alone," the ET
in rallies etc, the reason the picture made us go quotes Kejriwal as telling his supporters.
'aww' was how genuine it was. It didn't seem
like the regular 'I-am-a-family-man-neta' photo An Indian Revenue Services employee, Sunita
op that we are all so used to. 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, engag-
ing 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.
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
Kejriwal hugged Sunita the way you and I would many rallies and other shenanigans.
hug a partner when we get a promotion, get
otherwise awesome news. It was pure, unadul- She told ET and other media outlets that as she
terated joy, the kind the aam aadmi is all too is a government servant, it was not right and

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

AAP wins but it won’t be an easy ride

Copyright © 2012 Firstpost

Copyright © 2012 Firstpost

Copyright © 2012 Firstpost

Ramprasad, a cycle rickshaw puller ferrying this

It was equally chaotic situation around the AAP

Copyright © 2012 Firstpost

IANS, February 10, 2015

Addressing thousands of cheering supporters at

The 46-year-old then introduced his wife Su-

"This is my wife," he said, putting his arm

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FP Staff, February 12, 2015

MLA who won with the highest vote share at 71percent

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MLA who won with lowest vote share.

Lower percentage of margin of victory

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

MLA with highest margin of victory in terms of votes.

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You can read the whole report here:

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Here's what the final vote shares across parties

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PTI, February 10, 2015

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Naren-

Kiran Bedi also tweeted, "Full marks to Arvind.

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A lot of netizens were also seen taking a dig at

"#AAPSweep It took 20 days for @thekiranbedi

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FP Staff, February 10, 2015

Although, the exit polls had predicted a dra-

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That only party (BSP) got past the 1 percent

Looked at another way, the Delhi vote is an even

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AAP will succeed not by extending the reach of

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As Firstpost reported earlier, Kejriwal was

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This is not to suggest that some of the pollsters

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There is also the other issue: from poll to poll,

Psephology clearly is much art as science. The

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He presented a complete contrast from the

The AAP has learnt from own as well as from

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Through the campaign Kejriwal astutely

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Both Maken and Lovely have sent their resigna-

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Yadav also added that Narendra Modi was los-

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