The year of the Aam Aadmi

An unforgettable election year is now ending with a new Aam Aadmi Party-led government in the city, defying all  predictions and expectations.

And the swearing in of the Arvind Kejriwal-led minority government also brings to an end the 15-year tenure of Sheila Dikshit as the chief minister. Her Congress party was not only defeated but left with only eight seats against 43 in the last Assembly elections. Her ministers were crushed in the polls; Kejriwal trounced her in her own constituency.

There were some blips during AAP's rise through the year. Before elections, a sting allegedly showed its leaders open to the idea of taking money by illegal means as party funds. But the party stood firm with Shazia Ilmi and Kumar Vishwas, and challenged the media organisation in court. The damage was controlled in time or, in other words, the already sympathetic voters chose to ignore the allegations.

Another shocker came for the party when an alleged BJP worker from Maharashtra threw ink on the face of AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal at a press conference. But the party emerged clean, and bagged 28 seats in the 70-seat House.

Election campaigns

All the three major political parties – AAP, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party – had launched their election campaign in full throttle by blaming each other for working as the B team of another party. The BJP bagged 32 seats (along with an ally) and emerged as the single largest party, but decided to sit in the opposition.

The party attacked ruling Congress on inflation, power and water tariffs, and promised to slash water tariff. It was also counting on the NaMo effect, and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's posters, banners and cut-outs were used by many party candidates during the electioneering.

BJP leaders still claim that it was only the Modi effect which brought them to the number one position.

It was the AAP that played spoilport, they say, and the Congress added to the problem by later giving AAP outside support. The BJP was hopeful of a re-election in Delhi, but the Congress’s support to the AAP, left the party nowhere. As of now, the party is still waiting for the Congress to pull the rug, so that it can prepare for another Assembly election in the capital.

Congress devastated

The year proved to be devatating for the Congress party and former chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Dikshit and her cabinet colleagues had time and again before elections termed the AAP as a team of greenhorns, insisting that its only competitor in Delhi was the BJP.
Dikshit, had defended power and water tariff hikes with excuses like “if people are using electricity then they have to pay for it”. Perhaps, such remarks contributed to her rejection by the voters.

The infighting and factionalism in Congress helped the opposition to put the final nail in the coffin. The rift was widening while the Chief Minister virtually transformed her residence as the new party office. The party workers were demoralised and Dikshit’s post-election justification – blaming the state unit of the party for not acting effectively during the elections – took the scalp of state unit chief J P Agarwal. He resigned from the post taking ‘moral responsibility’ for the defeat.

Babus gets honest CM

The closing days of the year have also brought out a change that could impact city bureaucrats, who now have to face the heat of an ‘honest’ chief minister.   Secretaries in the ministries usually  stay till the formation of the new government, and many continue on their positions even when the new ministers take over. But in December 2013, as soon as it became clear that Kejriwal was going to be the new CM, all  minister’s secretaries and bureaucrats in the Chief Minister’s office were transferred to other departments. A  majority of them were transferred outside the secretariat.

High prices of onions

History repeated itself with onions playing a crucial role in dethroning the Dikshit government. In 1998, the then BJP government had faced a crushing defeat when it failed to control the price of onions. In 2013, the Congress government failed to keep in check the prices of onion and other vegetables:  onions hovered around Rs 80-100 per KG before elections. It started blaming the opposition party for hoarding onions supplies in the states run by them.

The year brought into focus role of  private power distribution companies,  Delhi Jal Board’s contracts with private companies. Kejriwal’s promise to reinvestigate the CWG corruption allegations, a transport scam and other irregularities through an independent agency or Lokpal.