Jan 20, 2015

Delhi Elections 2015

Nominations to be filed by all the major political parties today Jan 21. Leaders from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and Congress (I) are going to file nominations today.

AAP is headed by Arvind Kejriwal, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer,  bureaucrat turned activist-Politician who spearheaded the India Against Corruption Movement along with Social activist Anna Hazare of India in 2011.

INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION - WIKIPEDIA 

Aam Aadmi Party was founded to give birth to political aspirations of a movement, which largely appeared to have struck a chord among the general population, on major political issues like corruption and administration.

http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/ 

 Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party with 28 MLA's formed a coalition government  in Delhi in 2013 with the support of 8 seats of Congress(I) in the 70 member house and later resigned due to lack of majority in passing major anti-corruption laws seeking fresh elections.

Election Commission of India after a year on the directions of Judiciary decided to conduct the elections in Delhi for which the dates have been announced.

In 2013 Delhi had 11.9 eligible voters.
Source: Elections.in 
Election Commission of India 

Last Date of Nomination: 21
Election date February 7.
Results Date  February 10, 11, 12.

The elections in Delhi took an interesting turn when Ms Kiran Bedi an  IPS officer (Indian Police Service), also a familiar face with India Against Corruption Movement decided to join the BJP, which is the main opposition to Aam Aadmi Party which had the bulk of activists on its side. 

She  was quickly pitted against Arvind Kejriwal as the CM candidate for BJP which secured 32 seats in the last elections. Ms Bedi after following the track record of political developments, came out in opposition to strategies of AAP and nodded in favor of the policies adopted by the ruling BJP party at the centre of which she was critical on some issues in the past.

Ms Bedi accuses AAP with politics of negativity, accusations and insinuation.

Mr Ajay Maken former Union minister in the UPA government is heading the Congress campaign for Delhi elections. Earlier UPA Chief Minister Ms Shiela Dixit's government is accused of corruption in the conduct of Common Wealth games and not doing much on issues of corruption.   

Another noted IAC activist and a media presenter Shazia Ilmi, after contesting elections with AAP had distanced itself from the party complaining about lack of inner party democracy.

She is the latest entrant in the BJP along with Ms Kiran Bedi, has been of late complaining about lack of inner-party democracy in the party on a TV channel.

The main planks of AAP is about malfunctioning administrations under both BJP and Congress which have failed to end corruption in it's day-to-day functioning. Lack of electricity and water problem in the Delhi metropolitan area. Also it targets the sources of funding of major electoral politics being carried out with black money and manipulation of voters by doling out cash. 

http://www.aamaadmiparty.org/donation-list 
  
Black Money List Submitted to Supreme Court by Govt. - Times of India Report 

Black Money list in Court - BBC 

Congress has largely been passive in the face of large scale protests held by India Against Corruption activists. Even the opposition parties like BJP and it's supporters have cornered the then UPA government on issues like black money and money laundering through large scale protests in Delhi.

Though the current NDA government had formed a list and submitted it to the Supreme Court of India, but there is no further development in the case. 

Switzerland complained to India firstly to bring substantial evidence against the violators, and accepted to provided full evidence thereafter. Now onus is on the Government to prove that the individuals holding money in foreign accounts indeed is ill gotten wealth. 

India must show proof of fraud -Swiss Ambassador . - The Hindu 

Delhi elections will also showcase the mood of Indian electorate which in the 2014 elections voted to elect Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 282 seats, a 2/3rd majority is required to form a popular government in 543 member house.  

National Democratic Alliance - Wikipedia 

UPDATE JANUARY 23 2015 

Shanti Bhushan, eminent senior lawyer, one of the founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party and a lawyer-activist in the India Against Corruption IAC movement, came out in support of Ms Kiran Bedi, BJP CM nominee for the Delhi elections.

Mr Bhushan was of the view that Mr Kejriwal has lost direction and acting in unilateral way in day to day party functioning. He was critical of the way the party tickets has been distributed, with some allegations of tickets being sold to anti-social elements and for money.

In other developments, some AAP members disclosed that many members in the India Against Corruption movement were pro-BJP and there was no secret about it. Even the CM nominee of BJP Ms Kiran Bedi is said to have dissuaded Mr Kejriwal to go soft on BJP policies and target Congress for corruption and other issues.

The acceptance of this fact, seem to have backfired against the AAP itself as it is trying to portray Ms Bedi as pro-BJP since Anna Hazare movement and it is disclosing the same now.

Congress CM nominee Mr Ajay Maken has now demanded a full disclosure by the AAP as well as BJP CM nominee Ms Bedi, to disclose whether the IAC movement was carried out to marginalize Congress and was opposition driven conspiracy against it.

UPDATE 24th January 2015

So, everyone now knows that pro-BJP leaders were part of the Anna movement. One way or the other they may have their influence exerted on some of the functionings of the movement.

AAP in it's 49 day Government tried to solve the people's problems through novel ideas like, people meetings, which went haywire and the meetings had to be abandoned, remedies were sought. This shows that AAP is high on promises but very low on experience and delivery of services to the people.

But off late their are reports the party conducted Mohalla Sabha's, but these are only minor steps in a city which needs to be developed into a truly world class city, where the residents are the first one's to enjoy those facilities.

AAP'S Mohalla Sabha - Public meetings at the level of a simple locality. 

Some links of the 49 day rule of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi

Hindustan Times Report. AAP 49 day rule in Delhi - Achievements and Controversies. 

India exponent - The Good, Bad and Ugly of 49 day Govt, of AAP.

Another moment in the short AAP Govt. at Delhi was the organising of Janata Darbar.

Kejriwal holds Janata Darbar - Business Line. 

Here is another link in which the BJP CM nominee Ms Kiran Bedi flays AAP's failed Janata Darbar meetings in 2014.

Kiran Bedi flays Kejriwal over Janta Darbar - The Hindu. 

 Valleyz.Blog

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