Surprisingly, Aam Aadmi Party Prefers Clean Politics
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) prefers clean politics when, according to reports, one-third of its candidates contesting the Delhi election have criminal cases against them.
By Rakesh Raman
As Delhi election is scheduled to take place on Feb. 7, one of the political parties – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – has made a slew of promises to allure the Delhi voters.
In its election manifesto released Saturday, AAP has presented its action plan that the party promises to implement if it won the election. The manifesto covers the conventional areas such as water, electricity, education, security, transportation, etc. for the people of Delhi.
Surprisingly, AAP also prefers clean politics when, according to reports, one-third of its candidates contesting the Delhi election have criminal cases against them.
[ Also Read: Political Sibling Rivalry in Delhi Election ]
A leading think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) supported by a political watchdog Delhi Election Watch says that 23 (33%) of 70 AAP candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the maximum number of candidates with criminal cases closely followed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress, according to ADR.
While all political parties have a number of candidates with criminal records, their crimes include murders, attempts to murder, and serious crimes against women.
[ Read: Delhi Elections: 114 Candidates Have Criminal Cases ]
Even the chief ministerial candidates of AAP and BJP are not quite straight. Both Arvind Kejriwal of AAP and Kiran Bedi of BJP betrayed a social activist Anna Hazare to join politics deceptively.
Both – Kejriwal and Ms. Bedi – were ostensibly supporting Hazare in a nationwide anti-corruption campaign in 2011. But after gaining popularity, both left Hazare in the lurch to join hands with those traditional politicians whom they abused during Hazare’s campaign.
With a greed to become the chief minister of Delhi, Kejriwal took support from Congress in 2013 and Bedi eying political gains joined BJP a couple weeks ago.
[ Also Read: 10 Reasons I Like Sir Arvind Kejriwal ]
People also call Kejriwal a fugitive who ran away from his chief ministerial post after just 49 days, as he failed to deliver even with support from Congress.
Meanwhile, Congress has also released its election manifesto. With pictures of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi on the title page, the Congress manifesto screams “दिल्ली बनाई थी, दिल्ली बनायेंगे” which means “we made Delhi and we will make Delhi.”
While BJP has not yet released its manifesto, its main agenda is to accuse Kejriwal in all its election rallies. BJP leaders including Narendra Modi mostly talk about Kejriwal and his betrayal. Otherwise, the naïve BJP politicians don’t have any definite plan to serve the people of Delhi.
Currently, AAP, BJP, and Congress are the three main parties in fray for the forthcoming Delhi election. However, the direct fight is expected to be between AAP and BJP, as Congress has almost thrown in the towel after the party’s crushing defeats in the last Delhi election and the recent Lok Sabha election.
By Rakesh Raman, the managing editor of RMN Company
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