The emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)appears to have come as a boon for the Congress, which has been witnessing a down trend in its popularity across the country.
The Congress leadership, including vice president Rahul Gandhi, has failed to put the brakes on the rising popularity of Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. But with Arvind Kejriwal led-AAP announcing to contest “maximum number of seats” in the 2014 General Elections, the grand old party seems to have seen a ray of hope.
It was quite unusual on Congress’ part to extend support to the AAP to form government in Delhi, the same party which during its election campaign had heavily criticised the grand old party over corruption. Also, three times Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was defeated by Kejriwal by a huge margin.
The question which arises is, what led the Congress to extend support to the new political outfit. One reason may be that the Congress thought that AAP under the leadership of Kejriwal wouldn’t be able to fulfil the poll promises and ultimately the popularity of the new entrant fades away, another may be that the Congress is banking on AAP to eat into BJP’s vote share in the urban areas in the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress, which suffered a huge defeat in the recently held Assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh might have sensed the mood of the nation which appears to have tilted towards Modi – all thanks to the weak and indecisive leadership of the UPA government.
Overall, Congress was seen to lose ground over corruption scandals.
The BJP, has waged a fierce campaign fronted by its PM candidate, Modi, who has charmed businesses and is credited with turning Gujarat into an industrial haven.
The flamboyant Gujarat Chief Minister with his fiery oratory skills has almost diminished the Congress leadership and the ruling party has nothing left in its armoury to tackle the NaMo wave.
The Congress seems to be eyeing AAP’s support to take on Modi and this was evident when Mani Shankar Aiyar in an oblique comment suggested that Congress could seek the help of AAP in the run-up to General Elections 2014 to thwart the BJP’s influence.
“We will work shoulder to shoulder.. Having two secular parties at power is good for the country,” said Aiyar according to the reports.
Buoyed by spectacular performance in Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP has decided to contest maximum number of seats in the parliamentary election scheduled in April-May.
