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Delhi: ‘Do or Die’ Battlefield for AAP

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Delhi Assembly elections will be held on February 7 and results will be declared on February 10. Less than one month for preparation. In previous elections which were held 13 months ago, AAP had made a dream debut winning 28 seats in the 87-member assembly and upsetting what had hitherto been a straight BJP versus Congress contest. It resulted in a hung assembly with the BJP winning 31 seats – 32 along with an ally – four short of a majority. Looking at the Delhi’s present scenarios, common man is once again in a mood to give one more chance to Arvind Kejriwal. On the other side, once Kejriwal’s colleagues Shazia Ilmi decided to campaign for BJP in the election. She is a great orator. Ilmi along with Kiran Bedi would strengthen BJP to defeat anti-India AAP and Kejriwal. All the forces are against a small time party and its leaders.

The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah team will script the campaign with the former star campaigner and the latter, chief strategist. The party has announced that its state election strategy remains unchanged – no leader will be projected as presumptive chief minister and the BJP will bank completely on PM Modi’s appeal. The obvious question is; why the BJP is looking to board on the same route? The party kept a clean slate in Delhi, winning seven out of seven in the last Lok Sabha elections. The party is tipped to win this poll and will probably achieve it without much sweat. However, Modi decided to launch a vitriolic attack on AAP.

Kejriwal’s party may have its share of faults, but it is a bit of a stretch to equate them with Naxals. After being formed in 2012, AAP started at the small level, reaching out to different parts of the society. It struck a chord, especially with the underclass, which helped them win 28 seats in their debut appearance in the electoral scene. However, it lost the confidence at close to the Lok Sabha election. Arvind Kejriwal, in his bid to launch an audacious leap for power started the entire Ambani-Adani parlance ad nauseam. They did so much that the AAP and its leaders like Kejriwal and Ashutosh became part of popular memes with their often cynical accusation of everyone being involved in a nexus. That, along with the fervour for change and Modi emerging as the most credible challenger, meant AAP was boxed out of the race. BJP spent crores of rupees in making Modi as a brand and promoting him on all levels. Modi was projected larger than life with all possible technologies. Money was thrown like no bodies business. Many political parties closed their accounts with zero.

However, after a sobering experience last May, AAP is back with its original form alleging other leaders’ having nexus and stake in companies. By streamlining its operation, AAP is reaching out to every mohalla with its campaign, keeping its ears close to the ground. The party’s social media cell is working overtime to generate a positive buzz. BJP’s strategy is to scuttle AAP’s tactics by hitting them where it hurts the most. In a way, it is echoing the voice of the right, which often equates AAP to the realms of the ‘loony left’. The likes of Prashant Bhushan with their views on certain contentious matters, adds to that chatter. Modi wants AAP to be relegated to a party worth lampooning and spoofing, so that BJP only remains the by-default choice for electorates. It will be interesting to see how AAP responds on the ground to BJP’s onslaught and whether the saffron party will carry forward the tone set by their supreme leader.

These days, Narendra Modi is behaving like more of a BJP leader than a prime minister of this country. His ‘Naxal’ barb, on AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was just unreasonable; such kind of language doesn’t suit to the Prime Minister of the nation. Whatsoever would be the result but right now, no one can deny that Modi and BJP are scared of AAP’s popularity. They are taking it as the biggest threat.

Moreover, Modi failed in completing many of his promises such as security to woman, justice to farmers and jawans of this country. The Prime Minister has assured slum-free Delhi. However, nothing has been done to regulate slum or shifting them to proper places? Should they wait for seven more years and sleep on the streets till they get ‘pucca’ houses? The BJP has demolished slums in Rangpuri, Wazirpur, Vasant Kunj and Okhla. Where will they go in such an extreme weather? There are many such issues where BJP flopped miserably and got involved in communal tactics.

Nevertheless, BJP is projected to bag 34-40 Assembly seats in Delhi while the AAP is likely to win 25-31 seats said some publication survey .The Congress could get just 3-5 seats and others up to two seats, it says. From December 2014 to January 2015, Wave II of the RCS Poll Tracker 2015 sees a swing in favour of both the BJP and the AAP and a swing against the Congress. The January survey shows that the BJP is projected to get 40 per cent vote share (up from 39 per cent in December last year). The AAP is projected to secure 36 per cent vote share (no change from last month). The total sample of survey, conducted in all 70 constituencies and 210 polling stations, was 4,459. In Wave I of the survey in December 2014, the sample size was 4,273. Delhi goes to the polls on February 7 for the 70-member Assembly. In the last Assembly elections held on December 2013, the BJP won 31 seats, the AAP 28 seats, the Congress eight seats and others three seats.

Let’s see what is written in Delhi’s fate and who will come into the power.

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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