‘Democrazy’

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sri_krishnaENARADA, New Delhi

By Sri Krishna

Delhi was struck by a Tsunami of a new kind ‘Electoral Tsunami’ with Aam Admi Party (AAP) making history as it bagged 67 of the 70 Delhi Assembly seats and a joke now doing the rounds was that this was “democrazy.”

With BJP bagging three seats, knives are already coming out in the party against the manner in which the entire election campaign was handled by the party leadership.

As for the Congress which probably for the first time in the history of Delhi Assembly elections drew a blank, nothing could be more humiliating for even Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee who stood on a Congress ticket lost and yet the over 100 year old party appeared to be none the worse for this disastrous performance and kept the family out of the blame game with Delhi in charge P.C. Chacko and party General Secretary Ajay Maken taking the blame and quitting.

Meanwhile, according to reports party vice president Rahul Gandhi has left for a trip to Amsterdam clearly showing the attitude within the party.

As for the BJP, except veteran cricketer turned politician Kirti Azad  from Darbhanga who spoke out and wanted heads to roll,  others refrained from openly saying anything on the electoral debacle.

But, this kind of tough statement by Azad could encourage several others to  gear up to  raise the issue at party meetings that will dwell on the election results and analyse BJP’s first defeat since its Lok Sabha victory, under the Modi-Shah command.

This massive knock out punch for the BJP coming  within six months of sweeping the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi capturing all the seven seats, is indeed a pointer that people want quick results and following the motto “perform or perish.”

AAP

Within moments of the election results, the flag of revolt was raised by BJP workers in Krishna Nagar constituency where its Chief Ministerial candidate and former policewoman Kiran Bedi lost to AAP candidate by about 2500 votes.

However, AAP Chief Kejriwal  seems to have learnt a lesson saying immediately after the win “my first priority is to end corruption and we have to serve the people of delhi and the verdict is also scary,” clearly having understood that non-performance could prove disastrous for AAP.

In fact, Kejriwal refrained from making any comments against his key rival Kiran Bedi clearly showing his political maturity.

On the other hand, Bedi sought to put the blame on BJP and not on herself in what could be an indication that she may not stay long in the party.

Though it has not immediately sparked off any revolt within BJP but rumblings against the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah leadership is already being heard with senior leaders talking to each other specially among the seasoned, old guards  who had been sidelined in the last nine months since Modi came to power.

These leaders have begun talking to each other on the “mistakes” that had been made by the party leadership or just asking “what is happening?” which were indeed signs of what could happen in the days to come.

These were seasoned old hands in the party and the government, who have been kept out of BJP’s decision making processes, campaigning and even ignored for party posts  in the new system, who are no longer part of the “collective” decision making process that the party has traditionally followed.

Though no leader wants to yet speak but indications are that one of those who could be targeted could well be Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who is close to Modi and having been one of the key figures in bringing Kiran Bedi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.

“If this kind of defeat is not talked about we will be doing disservice to the party for which we have been working for 30-40 years. If we do not talk about the flaws now, when do we raise the issues,” remarked a senior party leader, adding that “we will not speak out in public but we will have to talk about things in closed door meetings if we want BJP to survive in Delhi and even elsewhere.”

As one BJP leader sought to put on a brave face by trying to inject some humour saying “now our party MLAs don’t need a car as all three can travel in an autorickshaw.”

According to party sources, the arrogance and even misbehaviour of Delhi MPs except Harsh Vardhan and Pravesh Verma with people in the party  saw lack of cooperation from cadres in the Delhi elections.

There is also allegation from within the party of it having turned into a party of the rich and disconnected with the poor that resulted in the total rejection by the people.

“Why did you remove Dr Harsh Vardhan from the health ministry if there were no plans to make him the CM candidate,” asked a top central party leader.

Not only in Delhi, the echoes of the defeat was also heard in Mumbai with Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray describing the AAP victory as not just a wave but a Tsunami clearly indicating that the BJP win under Modi’s leadership was only a wave.

AAP 1

The only consolation for BJP is that in the coming winter session of Parliament, the Congress may not be able to make much noise as its presence in Delhi has been wiped out and AAP has only four MPs in the Lok Sabha.

Coupled with this, even in the Opposition ranks in the Lok Sabha there is lack of numbers to trouble the ruling NDA.

But, clearly one lesson is that it is a wake up call for all political parties in that if they do not perform or as in the case of BJP they have become arrogant, they would have to pay a heavy price.

But, what is indeed shocking is that Congress continues to be oblivious to the defeat with P.C. Chacko who  was in charge of Delhi taking blame as also former minister Ajay Maken who quit as General Secretary and party spokespersons continuing to defend Rahul Gandhi who reportedly has left on a foreign trip.

Surely suffering one defeat after another since the Lok Sabha drubbing hardly appears to have affected the over hundred year old party and its spokesman like Rajeev Gowda keeping up an arrogant attitude as he said  people voted to defeat the BJP in Delhi and there was positive vote for AAP but that “there was also anti-incumbency against us. It is the lowest point and a turnaround will start.”

He said that party will evolve a firm road map for revival.

But, as veteran journalist and former editor of “The Statesman” S. Nihal Singh said that Congress was supposed to do badly in Delhi but even minority voters deserted it in favour of AAP as there was no hope of the party winning.

He said Congress had a difficult road ahead and Rahul Gandhi had proved a “non-starter”.

“In my view, Congress faces a dilemma. Without Nehru-Gandhi family, the Congress will split. With Rahul as its leader, they will drown,” he said.

Posted on February 10 , 2015, 11:00pm

(Author is a Senior Journalist and his email id is srikrishna1952@gmail.com)

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