Delhi Assembly Election 2013 – the probabilities

The pre-poll surveys had stated that there was a good chance that in Delhi the incumbent Congress may have to relinquish its seat of power. It seems that these have come true with BJP and AAP leaving Congress behind in the opening rounds of counting of votes. Political experts are of the opinion that one of the major reasons behind the present condition of Congress is the emergence of the AAP that has eaten into the ruling party’s share of votes. In fact Arvind Kejriwal has been able to edge ahead of Sheila Dikshit. This is a crucial development considering the fact that Dikshit has been the CM for a substantial period of time and Kejriwal is being regarded as one of the main contenders for the spot. In fact, the position of other ministers in the state legislative assembly is not exactly commendable either. AK Walia, who serves as the health minister in Delhi, has been trailing from his constituency – Lakshmi Nagar. On the other hand, Harsh Vardhan, who is fighting for the post of CM from BJP, is leading the count in Krishna Nagar and Manish Sisodia from AAP is leading from the Patparganj constituency. Dr. Vardhan has expressed confidence in the party being able to gain a substantial lead over both the opponents – AAP and Congress. However, it has not been all smooth going for AAP that has been making waves in its very first appearance in the Indian political scene. Its candidate Shazia Ilmi has been trailing in the RK Puram constituency. The BJP has stated very clearly that the results in Delhi have failed to meet its expectation. They were expecting a clear majority as per the opinion of Sudhanshu Trivedi, a BJP spokesperson. Regarding the emergence of AAP, Kiran Bedi has tweeted that the party was the result of Congress’ refusal to institute an SIT to probe the Coalgate scam. Prashant Bhushan of AAP is meanwhile afraid that both Congress and BJP might try to lure their candidates with more money. His apprehension perhaps results from his opinion that both these parties had previously tried to attract voters using similar methods. Even Manu Singhvi, the Congress spokesman, has admitted that the party may be losing in Delhi this time around. This election is a highly important one for Sheila Dikshit. During her electoral campaign she had stressed on factors such as development as well as the major milestones and achievements of her regime. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, on the other hand, had stated that he will deduct power tariff by 30% and reduce prices of vegetables within 30 days of being voted to power. A few days back during several surveys people in some areas had revealed that they were satisfied with the way the Congress MLAs had been working in their respective areas and for majority of the older voters AAP was not an option to be trusted. The question, then, is how did this turnaround happen? Some other questions also come up inevitably over here:

Why have the people voted against Congress? Are they not convinced about the promises of development and progress being made by its leaders?
Why have the BJP succeeded? Is it because of the failure of Congress or because of the fact that is promising to take some concrete and definite steps as against using blanket terms like development and progress?
How has the AAP been able to make such impressive headway in its very first appearance? Is it because most of the contestants are perhaps new to the political arena and thus do not have the stigma of failure or controversies attached to them? Is this why the common public wants to give them a chance before passing a verdict again in 2018?

No matter which party comes to power, it will have several important responsibilities to look ahead to such as reducing the prices of essential commodities such as food and electricity as well as making the city safe for one and all, especially for young women who work late. Controlling the crime rate will be an important task as well. It is also probable that Delhi could be one of the centers for one of the Under 17 Soccer World Cup, which will be hosted by India in 2017 and the administration needs to make it a grand success. The Commonwealth Games organization in 2010 left a lot to be desired on several fronts – the facilities for the visiting teams were not always up to the mark, the infrastructure was shoddy and there were plenty of allegations of financial misappropriation by the organizers. The administration needs to make sure that such instances are not repeated and it will also be crucial for them in the sense that the quality of organization could have some repercussion during 2018 when the next assembly elections are held in Delhi.

Delhi Assembly Election 2013 – the probabilities

Trending Pages

Related Articles