Right after the Lok Sabha election results intensified talk of a Modi wave, the Aam Aadmi Party wanted the Delhi assembly election delayed as much as possible. Yet it is now trying to press for an early poll in the national capital.
On May 20, four days after the results were announced, AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met Lieutenant Governor Najib Jung and asked him not to dissolve the state Assembly. He also tried hard, though in vain, to form the government once again with the support of the Congress.
Six weeks later, on Thursday, Kejriwal led all his party MLAs to meet President Pranab Mukherjeee, asking him that the Delhi Assembly be dissolved at the earliest. The letter that they submitted to the president claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party was “making desperate attempts to poach MLAs” from other parties.
“In the last few days, the BJP has approached 15 of our MLAs, with offers of ministerial berths, properties and cash ranging from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore. When this did not work, the BJP has now resorted to making life threats on our MLAs. On the evening of July 1, 2014, Bandana Kumari, our MLA from Shalimar Bagh, was given a life threat. She has already filed a police complaint in this regard. We are attaching a CD with this letter which contains CCTV footage of the people who came to threaten Bandana Kumari,” the letter said.
“These allegations made by the AAP are rubbish and are made only to gain mileage in the media,” said BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana, referring to the charges leveled by Kejriwal in his letter to the President. “There is no question of any horse trading.”
“Secondly, our stand on government formation has always been clear. When Assembly results were announced on December 8 last year, we were the single largest party but refused to form the government because our stand was that we did not want to break any other party up. Our stand has not changed since then,” he added.
On Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the BJP lawyer's suggestion that the AAP-filed case for dissolution of the Delhi assembly should be heard by a five-judge Constitutional bench.
Kejriwal's aggressive demand for early polls is an indicator that the AAP thinks its electoral fortunes in Delhi are not as bad as they were just a few weeks ago. Or Kejriwal might just have pre-empted any possibility of the BJP breaking the AAP.
Whatever be the case, AAP insiders say they see hope in the continuing rise in prices and shortage in power and water supply, as they are being debated widely even among those who helped fuel the “Modi wave”.
A set of unpopular measures which are expected to be announced during the next session of Parliament – as has already been indicated by the Prime Minister and many of his cabinet colleagues – may create further adverse reactions, particularly among the middle class. Though the Congress has started taking to the streets on various problems being faced by the people in Delhi, AAP leaders feel that the anti-incumbency that led to the collapse of the grand old party in recent elections is not over yet and that the post-poll debates in the society at large have started working against the BJP.
The Delhi unit of the BJP feels that the Modi factor may not be enough, as the state BJP does not have a clean image and a mass connect through workers, both of which the AAP can boast of. Not winning the next Delhi assembly election could put an embarrassing question mark on the resilience of Modi wave, which delivered a magnificent result for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
On May 20, four days after the results were announced, AAP leader and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met Lieutenant Governor Najib Jung and asked him not to dissolve the state Assembly. He also tried hard, though in vain, to form the government once again with the support of the Congress.
Six weeks later, on Thursday, Kejriwal led all his party MLAs to meet President Pranab Mukherjeee, asking him that the Delhi Assembly be dissolved at the earliest. The letter that they submitted to the president claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party was “making desperate attempts to poach MLAs” from other parties.
“In the last few days, the BJP has approached 15 of our MLAs, with offers of ministerial berths, properties and cash ranging from Rs 10 crore to Rs 20 crore. When this did not work, the BJP has now resorted to making life threats on our MLAs. On the evening of July 1, 2014, Bandana Kumari, our MLA from Shalimar Bagh, was given a life threat. She has already filed a police complaint in this regard. We are attaching a CD with this letter which contains CCTV footage of the people who came to threaten Bandana Kumari,” the letter said.
“These allegations made by the AAP are rubbish and are made only to gain mileage in the media,” said BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana, referring to the charges leveled by Kejriwal in his letter to the President. “There is no question of any horse trading.”
“Secondly, our stand on government formation has always been clear. When Assembly results were announced on December 8 last year, we were the single largest party but refused to form the government because our stand was that we did not want to break any other party up. Our stand has not changed since then,” he added.
On Friday, the Supreme Court accepted the BJP lawyer's suggestion that the AAP-filed case for dissolution of the Delhi assembly should be heard by a five-judge Constitutional bench.
Kejriwal's aggressive demand for early polls is an indicator that the AAP thinks its electoral fortunes in Delhi are not as bad as they were just a few weeks ago. Or Kejriwal might just have pre-empted any possibility of the BJP breaking the AAP.
Whatever be the case, AAP insiders say they see hope in the continuing rise in prices and shortage in power and water supply, as they are being debated widely even among those who helped fuel the “Modi wave”.
A set of unpopular measures which are expected to be announced during the next session of Parliament – as has already been indicated by the Prime Minister and many of his cabinet colleagues – may create further adverse reactions, particularly among the middle class. Though the Congress has started taking to the streets on various problems being faced by the people in Delhi, AAP leaders feel that the anti-incumbency that led to the collapse of the grand old party in recent elections is not over yet and that the post-poll debates in the society at large have started working against the BJP.
The Delhi unit of the BJP feels that the Modi factor may not be enough, as the state BJP does not have a clean image and a mass connect through workers, both of which the AAP can boast of. Not winning the next Delhi assembly election could put an embarrassing question mark on the resilience of Modi wave, which delivered a magnificent result for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
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