Battle for Delhi 2015: BJP woos AAP leaders to join to outsmart Kejriwal and AAP

Delhi state votes on February 7 to elect a 70 member assembly, hopefully a party coming to power to serve the Delhiites sincerely.

By February 14, 2015 the Indian Capital may have a new government in form.

It appears the BJP and PM Narendra Modi, after their bad experience in Kashmir poll verdict, and has taken the Delhi poll as real challenge to its legitimacy to rule India, though they have moderate majority in the parliament. .

In a sense, the fate of both Arvind Kejriwal and Modi is decided by the people of Delhi state.  Incidentally, both Kejriwal and Modi originally belong to middle class but Modi quickly moved up to reach the upper ladder to become a close associate of corporate lords and their media nuts . Now Modi promotes only profit interests of the rich and corporate lords and MNCs, while Kejriwal is still behind the common people and fight them in favor of common masses. .

While AAP and BJP are fighting the pool for a government, Congress party does not have any such ambitions now. It wants to increase its seats in Delhi assembly if BJP allows that and if Delhiites can find some lame excuse to vote for Congress as well. As for AAP, having burnt its hands in the Lok Sabha elections, it needs a win for its very survival.

Like Congress party, BJP also has huge chunks of cash ready to be thrown to agents. Bruised from resounding poll losses, the Congress hopes to emerge with some honour in a state where it ruled for three consecutive terms. The mighty Congress had been reduced to eight, with its incumbent chief minister Sheila Dikshit’s loss to Kejriwal compounding the party’s humiliation. Congress party looks for Kashmiri type sympathetic mindset towards Congress in Delhi as well, while BJP is trying to adopt AAP’s grassroots campaign and its crowd-funding strategies.

Having learnt its lesson, the Congress also took a page from AAP, and the change in its politics in the city has been visible since at least October 2014. During the Lok Sabha elections in May, the Congress had slammed Kejriwal for his “disruptive” politics. But since the Delhi Assembly was dissolved in October 2014, it has itself organised at least five varied styles of protests across the national capital.

Congress arty people have also taken over the AAP style role of protests, dharnas and demonstrations to impress the voters.  Like the Congress, the BJP has also picked up door-to-door campaigning from AAP.

With the corruption charge hurting last time, the Congress also claims to have organised public donation drives now to raise money for its campaign — another trick from AAP’s bag. Though the drives have gained little traction, the Congress is trying to use these to present a cleaner image.

The BJP and Narendra Modi view Delhi as the icing on the cake after steamrolling through four state elections in India, forgetting about Kashmir judgment. Any BJP defeat would be projected by the Congress and others as a sign of bursting of the BJP’s bubble.

In 2013, AAP had not only developed a comprehensive Delhi manifesto, but created one for each of Delhi’s 70 constituencies. While Aam Admi Party focuses on its traditional voters who form the majority of a single block of common masses in the capital of India, the BJP finds itself far away from AAP campaign strategy. In order to outwit Kejriwal and team, now PM Modi has roped in as many people as possible from AAP to campaign against Kejriwal and AAP, leaving the Congress party cadres untouched. As for AAP, having burnt its hands in the Lok Sabha elections, it needs a win for its very survival..

Frankly, not even the Kejriwal thought the Delhiites would give his AAP so many seats to be able form a temporary government to fulfill some of their electoral pledges and contain corruption in big way. .

BJP’s main agenda is not anti-corruption or development but make India congress free nation.  PM Modi possibly believes by making India Congress party free, corruption issue could be effectively checked.

That India would become a genuine democracy to care for the common people if Congers is kept out.  An experienced leader, who rose from common folks, knows very well corruption cannot be removed without proper legislation and implementation of anti-corruption laws strictly.

PM Modi’s calculated projection of so-called development phenomenon is indeed a deceptive agenda because development has always taken place everywhere in India at par with other nations.  India today is structurally different form what it was say20 years ago. Gujarat had become a developed state even before Mod became the CM there.

BJP’s new entrants like Kiran Bedi and Shazia Ilmi are looking for a chance to outsmart Kejriwal by trying to apply breaks in his sway over the masses and in AAP’s fast growth among common people. The hope obviously is to blunt some of AAP’s allegations against the BJP.

Delhiites trust the AAP the most. Unlike other political parties the AAP is a concept to serve the people without expediting anything in return from masses.  The party loves people, specifically the underprivileged ones. Even within those 47 days, of rule, allowed by Congress and BJP, the AAP could do everything possible to serve the Delhiites. AAP had promised to cut power tariffs by half if elected to power and, in his short-lived tenure as CM, Kejriwal did that, albeit through a government subsidy. Kejriwal also delivered on a promise to supply 700 litres of free water per day to every Delhi resident.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Friday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfil his promise of granting full statehood to Delhi. "The Bharatiya Janata Party had promised that Delhi will be granted the right of full statehood. We request that Prime Minister Modi fulfils this promise," Kejriwal told the media.

The former Delhi chief minister also raised the issue of sewage facilities and the construction of roads in the unauthorized colonies of the national capital. "The people in unauthorized colonies are living in very poor conditions and we want that they have proper sewage facilities and roads. We also want the commencement of registry of the unauthorized colonies and the issuing of loans for the houses,"

he stated.

The issues like Lokpal and swaraj Bills are not debated in campaigns by politicians this time. The so-called Team Anna has done a complete U-turn with a majority of its stars now in the BJP fold as they say now that “only politics could change things” and not movements.

Delhi has been under President's rule since February 2014 after Kejriwal stepped down from power. In the 2013 December assembly polls in Delhi, the BJP had bagged 31, falling short of a simple majority in the 70-member House. The AAP had won 28 seats and the Congress eight.

AAP came to power for 49 days with Congress support and was eager to withdraw support any time to insult the AAP.  AAP had failed to win a single rural seat in 2013. With that performance being blamed on wrong candidates, the party changed its ticket distribution this time.

As it undisclosed national policy, Congress party would like the BJP to come to power and not the AAP. However, Delhiites have always chosen their own strategy. That also could spell doom to India’s senior most national party, Congress party.

BJP and Congress may have used the AAP style of electioneering in Delhi poll but will Delhiites trust them who promote black money, the rich and corporates? Neither Congress nor BJP could bring back all money kept in foreign banks because they are solidly behind money launderers.