Today’s
newspaper articles (both from “The Guardian”) continue the subject of the
recent state elections here in India:
New Indian party claims
revolution in the air as Congress vote collapses
Pressure on Rahul Gandhi as governing party's
disastrous local election results encourage opposition BJP and upstart AAP
A supporter of the AAP holds up brooms, the party
symbol, as he celebrates success in the state assembly elections. Photograph:
Prabhat Kumar Verma/Demotix/Corbis
Outside the headquarters of the Aam Admi (Common
Man) party in central Delhi on Sunday night, hawkers sold poppadoms, bored
police watched from squad cars and a crowd of excited young people sang songs
dating back to the days of India's independence movement.
"This is what we do best in this country:
non-violent revolution," said Shehshan Partak, a 25-year-old engineer and
activist for Aam Admi (AAP). "And this is a revolution."
The claim is exaggerated but perhaps not entirely
unjustified. The results of recent elections in Delhi and three other Indian
states, released on Sunday, indicate that change is imminent in the in the
world's biggest democracy. A general election is less than six months away.
On Sunday night, however, AAP candidates and
supporters were celebrating what their leader, 45-year-old former tax inspector
Arvind Kerjiwal, called a "historic win".
In local assembly elections in Delhi, India's
sprawling capital, the party won 28 out of 70 seats. Kejriwal himself beat the
chief minster of the city, a veteran of the ruling Congress party who had
dismissed the AAP as "not even on our radar" when it was founded a
year ago, by a massive 27,000-vote margin. Congress was wiped out, reduced to
eight seats.
"It's a remarkable achievement for a new
party. There is a general dissatisfaction with political parties and we fought
on basic issues – water, education, sanitation, security – which
resonate," said Atishi Marlena, a historian who is a senior activist in
the AAP.
The collapse of Congress support in Delhi was
mirrored around India.
Though the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party was
unable to clinch a majority in Delhi, elsewhere it won massive victories. The
party wrested the state of Rajasthan from Congress, and held on to Chhattisgarh
and Madhya Pradesh.
Narendra Modi, centre, Bharatiya Janata's prime minsterial candidate,
and other party leaders before a meeting in Delhi on Sunday. Photograph: Ahmad
Masood/Reuters
The elections are being viewed by analysts as the
"semi-final" before the general election in late spring.
"The lineup will be the same next year and
it's a meltdown for Congress. It's a real warning for them," Anil Padmanabhan,
an analyst who writes for the newspaper Mint.
Congress has led the central government for two
terms and is facing widespread anger about corruption, slowing growth and
soaring prices of everyday items.
Congress politicians played down the significance
of the defeats. Jyotiraditya Scindia, a Congress party minister, said the state
elections are "a mandate on state-level issues … not a mandate on any
person's leadership or for 2014".
The coming election is being seen as a contest
between Congress's Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political
dynasty, and Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat and the BJP's declared prime ministerial candidate. Both campaigned for the recent polls.
Modi, three times chief minister of Gujarat, is a
Hindu nationalist whose reputation has been tarnished by allegations that he
failed to protect Muslims during sectarian rioting in Gujarat in 2002. The
63-year-old is, however, popular with the business community and among many
urban voters.
Analysts were split over how far Modi's vigorous
campaigning of recent months had contributed to the BJP's strong showing.
"It's impossible to quantify a Modi factor in
state elections but it's a very good result for the BJP and gives them a real
springboard for the contest next spring," said Swapan Dasgupta, a
political analyst.
Vinod Sharma, political editor of the Hindustan
Times, said that the defeats for Congress were less to do with Modi and more a
display of local dissatisfaction with the national Congress-led coalition
government.
The Congress party's poor performance in the state
assembly elections will lead to further questioning of Gandhi's leadership
abilities.
Some analysts have contrasted Gandhi's stress on
the Congress-led government's massive expansion of welfare programmes with
Modi's more "aspirational" messages aimed at India's youthful
population. At least 120m first voters are estimated to be eligible to vote
next year.
Gandhi said on Sunday that both mainstream parties
were "thinking about politics in a traditional way". Congress would
learn from the AAP's success and "involve people across the country in
ways you cannot imagine right now", the 43-year-old former management
consultant told reporters.
His mother, Sonia Gandhi, said the party would
"accept the verdict of the people in all humility".
India's fragmented political landscape makes
forthcoming national elections hard to predict, however. Historically, strong
state results have not always translated into success in national elections.
And though last night AAP activists at its campaign
headquarters said it would now change "whole India", Dasgupta said
that the AAP would have great difficulty expanding beyond the capital.
"Kejriwal was able to seize the anti-Congress
mood and the moribund state of the local BJP gave them an opportunity. But its
impact will be limited to one state," he said.
The Indian economy has boomed in recent decades but
the wealth is poorly distributed and a weak state is unable to deliver basic
services and security to the estimated 15 million inhabitants of the country's
capital.
The AAP's support is strongest among the lower
middle classes, who do not have the resources to pay for private substitutes
for poor public services such as transport or education. As urban populations
swell in India so this constituency has grown.
Analysts also pointed out that traditional Congress
support from those at the bottom of
India's caste system, the tenacious social
hierarchy, appeared to be absent.
The AAP has argued that a new style of politics
should ignore factors such as caste and focus on delivery of basic services,
honest administration and transparency.
"I voted for Kejriwal because all the others
are thieves. They tell us they will help us when they want our votes and then
we never hear or see them again," said Mohan Lal, a 42-yea- old cobbler in
west Delhi.
Marlena, the activist who is also one of the AAP's
key policymakers, said the party was part of a broader, worldwide phenomenon,
such as the political groups "coming out of people's movements" in
Europe and the Middle East. The AAP has its roots in an apolitical protest
movement against the endemic corruption in India.
"We think there is a political space.
Democracy has ignored the common people for too long," she said.
- ©
2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All
rights reserved.
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India's Congress party
suffers local election 'meltdown'
Ruling party poised to lose power in Delhi amid
public anger over widespread corruption, slowing growth and rising prices
A BJP supporter at a Narendra Modi rally: a heavy
defeat is predicted for the Congress party in next year's election. Photograph:
Amarjeet Singh/Demotix/Corbis
India's ruling Congress party appears to have sustained a series of bruising
defeats in local elections that analysts regard as a "semi-final" before
a general election due next spring, according to early poll results.
Congress was poised to lose power in Delhi and the
major states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The big winners in the local
elections were a new local party headed by a former tax inspector and a
national opposition energised by India's most controversial politician,
Narendra Modi.
"The lineup will be the same next year and
it's a meltdown for Congress," Anil Padmanabhan, an analyst who writes for
local newspaper Mint.
Congress has led the central government for two
terms and is facing deep anger among voters over widespread corruption, slowing
growth and soaring prices.
A heavy defeat next year is widely predicted with
its main opponent, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), the
clear winner in three big states that went to the polls, and neck-and-neck race
in a fourth as results continued to come in.
In Delhi, it was the Aam Admi (Common Man) party
that surprised many, with
predictions showing the new organisation winning
nearly 30 of the 70 seats in the local assembly, beating the Congress party,
which led India's struggle for independence, into third place with fewer than
10 seats.
"I thought they would do well but never get
this far," said Padmanabhan.
The party is led by Arvind Kejriwal, a 45-year-old
former bureaucrat-turned-activist and amateur politician, who has capitalised
on public anger at poor services, corruption and the complacency of India's
political elite.
In a country where many are illiterate, political
parties rely on a symbol for recognition – the AAP's is a broom.
"I voted for Kejriwal because all the others
are thieves. They tell us they will help us when they want our votes and then
we never hear or see them again. Now we will sweep them away," said Mohan
Lal, a 42-year-old cobbler in west Delhi.
Supporters of the new party celebrated in the
streets, waving brooms to symbolise sweeping out rotten politicians after
several years of corruption scandals.
Party officials said they had national ambitions,
though analysts believe it will have difficulties expanding beyond the capital.
Congress politicians downplayed the significance of
the defeats. Jyotiraditya Scindia, a
Congress party minister, told the local NDTV news
channel state elections were "a mandate on state level issues … not a
mandate on any persons leadership or for 2014".
Polls next year will see Rahul Gandhi, the scion of
the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and vice-president of the Congress party, pitted against Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat
and the BJP's declared prime ministerial candidates. Both campaigned at the
recent polls.
Modi, three times chief minister of Gujarat, is a
Hindu nationalist whose reputation has been tarnished by allegations that he
failed to protect Muslims during sectarian rioting in Gujarat in 2002. However,
the 63-year-old is popular with the business community and among many urban
voters.
Markets are closely tracking the outcome of the
elections. Bond, rupee and share prices rose last week after exit polls
predicted a strong BJP performance.
Analysts are split over how far Modi's vigorous
campaigning of recent months had contributed to the BJP's strong showing.
"It's impossible to quantify a Modi factor in
state elections but it's a very good result for the BJP and gives them a real
springboard for the contest next spring," said Swapan Dasgupta, a
political analyst.
Vinod Sharma, political editor of the Hindustan
Times, said the defeats for Congress were "less to do with Modi" and
more a display of local dissatisfaction with the national Congress-led
coalition government.
The Congress party's poor performance in the state
assembly elections will led to further questioning of the leadership abilities
of 43-year-old Gandhi, heir to a political dynasty that began with his
great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.
Some analysts have contrasted Gandhi's campaign,
which highlighted the Congress government's massive expansion of welfare
programmes, with Modi's message, which targeted the aspirations of India's
youthful population. At least 120 million first-time voters are estimated to be
eligible to take part in the next year's national polls.
India's fragmented political landscape makes
national elections hard to predict.
Historically, strong state results have not always
translated into success in national elections.
In three of the four state elections counted on
Sunday, the election was a two-way race between the BJP and Congress, rare in a
country whose states are increasingly governed by powerful regional parties.
Final results were expected by late afternoon for
the elections in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- ©
2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All
rights reserved.
