Why is Kejriwal ready to bite the bullet & form govt. in Delhi?

Background

Governor called  the single largest party BJP to form govt. in Delhi. BJP declined saying it didn’t have the numbers. Congress in the meanwhile sent an unconditional letter of support for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to Governor. Mr. Jung called Kejriwal to discuss about govt. formation. Kejriwal requested for 10 days time. He said that AAP has written to both Congress & BJP asking for response on 18 questions. This was discussed in earlier post “Who will form the govt. in Delhi”.  https://politicalbaaba.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/who-will-form-the-govt-in-delhi-bjp-aap-or-re-elections/

While BJP didn’t reply to the letter, Congress replied by saying that 16 of 18 questions are administrative in nature and support is never unconditional. BJP queered the pitch by blaming AAP of running away from responsibility of forming govt. This is when Kejriwal sprung another surprise. He said that AAP will conduct a referendum in Delhi and outside and ask people whether they wanted it to form govt. or not? Sms campaigns, surveys, letters, emails were sent to lakhs of people and Kejriwal is expected to take a call today.

Most probably he is going to form the govt. and achieve his ambition of becoming CM. Overwhelming majority is for forming the govt. according to media reports.

Some important issues need to be understood in detail in this chain of events.

1. Why did Kejriwal change his mind and is ready to take support from corrupt Congress?

AAP is divided on forming govt. without numbers.

Logic For Govt. Formation: Mandate is anti-Congress. If AAP doesn’t form govt., it will be seen as running away from responsibility. Good performance in first three months will enhance its chances in Lok Sabha elections. Public will be spared from re-election expenditure.

Logic Against Govt. Formation: How can party take help of Congress against which it fought tooth and nail in the elections? Plus Congress has a dubious history of propping up minority governments and pulling them down. If re-elections happen AAP will anyways get majority.

In between all this, Parliament passed the Lokpal Bill. Anna supported this bill while AAP called it Jokepal. A lot of AAP supporters are actually India Against Corruption movement sympathizers. Passage of Lokpal was one of the important reasons why AAP was formed. Kejriwal fears that his support base could dwindle post this event and there is no guarantee that AAP will get majority if re-elections happen. Plus if re-elections happen along with Lok Sabha, Modi wave could tilt Delhi voters in favour of BJP. Future is uncertain! Mauke pe chauka nahin chakka maar lo. Further even if his govt. fails he always has the Congress to blame. This could also get AAP some sympathy. So a win-win situation, nothing to lose.

2. Why is Congress which is being abused day in & out by AAP ready to support AAP?

AAP is daily abusing Congress and its leaders. Kejriwal humiliated Congress CM Shiela Dixit by 20k+ votes. Despite this Congress is willingly ready to support AAP. The local leadership & MLAs are dead against this. Sonia & Rahul are in favour of putting up a AAP government. This they feel will improve image among people that Congress is supporting a honest / clean govt. Plus it will make the state elections score BJP 3 : Congress 1. This is much better than BJP 4: Congress 0. Feel this is the biggest reason.

3. Why is BJP which challenged AAP to form govt. suddenly accusing it of betraying voters?

BJP was playing a bluff game with AAP and daring it to form govt. They were sure that AAP would never take support of Congress and form govt. This way BJP could put the blame on AAP for re-election.  But Kejriwal is a smart politician, he dwarfed BJP’s bluff and is now ready to form govt. Sour grapes for BJP. It is now crying and accusing AAP of flip-flop and going back on its words for taking support of Congress. BJP should not be short sighted as it might win if re-elections happen. Depends on how AAP govt. performs.

BJP and others criticizing AAP should know that AAP is a political party. Flip flops and going back on promises is what every party has done in the past. So AAP is just continuing with the tradition. AAP is answerable only to its voters as to why its taking this step and not BJP.

4. How can sms campaign decide whether govt. should be formed? AAP leadership is indecisive!

Questions are being raised about the referendum. Technically AAP should be asking only people who voted for AAP the question whether it should form govt. or not? Others didn’t vote for AAP. Correct to some extent but not practical. Lot of people didn’t vote for AAP because they thought it was a game spolier and not a contender. Plus there is no way to fidn out who voted for AAP, secret voting in India.

AAP leadership is indecisive and how will they run govt.? Sms campaigns cannot decide such serious issues. Why not? AAP has caught the imagination of people because it has given power in their hands. People feel included in decision making on issues which are of importance to their lives. Voters have never been given so much importance in history of India by any political party. Leaders are seen only during elections and then they disaapear. Here is a party which not only is valuing importance of opinion of its supporters but also those who might not have voted for it.

Only time will tell whether AAP forms the govt. (there could be further surprises). How does it perform? Is it able to fulfil promises or not? Request your comments.