12

Jan

Winning An Election By Hook or Crook

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A person wearing glasses and a red scarf Description automatically generatedIt is a heady cocktail of ED raids, CBI inquiries, police cases , false accusations, jail terms , misleading propaganda , personal attacks and an aggressive political campaign that tends to hit below the belt. The objective is to somehow win next month’s Delhi Assembly elections.

In May 2022, AAP government Minister Satendra Jain was arrested by ED on charges of money laundering. He was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation on corruption charges. He was the first senior leader and serving Minister of AAP govt to have been arrested. He was also the health minister credited with running Mohalla clinics. He was also in charge of AAP in Himachal Pradesh which was going for assembly polls. He spent 900 days in jail. His residence and offices were raided by Income Tax, CBI and Enforcement Directorate multiple times. Nothing discriminating has been found so far nor has there been any money trail involving him.

In February 2023, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi govt and one of the most prominent face of AAP was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate in connection to the Delhi Excise Policy Scam. Sisodia is not only the most prominent face of AAP, second only to Kejriwal, he was also the education minister driving AAP govt’s flagship education policy. He spent 17 months in jail. Multiple raids were conducted by CBI, IT and ED. Nothing discriminating has been found so far nor is there any money trail.

In October 2023, most vocal face of AAP and its voice in Rajya Sabha, Sanjay Singh was arrested by CBI and EC on charges of formulating and implementing the now scrapped liquor policy under draconian Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He was raided by CBI and ED before being arrested. Nothing discriminating was found nor is there any money trail. He spent 181 days in prison. He was released in April during general election campaign.

In March 2024, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by ED and was booked by CBI as well. He was accused of being the kingpin of liquor scam. He was also accused of using the proceeds of crime in Goa assembly election. Nothing discriminating has been found on him so far, no money trail either. At the time of his arrest, three senior most AAP leaders were already in jail. AAP was left leaderless just a week after the Lok Sabha polls were announced model code of conduct was in place. He spent little over six months in jail. He was released in October 2024. Soon, Manish Sisodia and Satender Jain were also given bail. Even SC could not hold them in any longer.

Column at a Glance
As Delhi's Assembly elections approach, the political climate has become increasingly tumultuous, particularly for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has faced a series of high-profile arrests and allegations, primarily from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Key AAP leaders, including Minister Satendra Jain, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have been arrested on corruption and money laundering charges, yet no substantial evidence has been found against them.
Monday Musing
By Shikha Tyagi
The BJP has intensified its attacks on AAP, questioning Kejriwal's integrity and effectiveness, despite the party's achievements in education and healthcare. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the integrity of the upcoming elections, particularly regarding a significant increase in voter numbers, which some view as a potential tactic to favor the BJP. As the election date nears, the impact of these controversies on voter sentiment remains uncertain.

 

Besides these, plethora of other AAP leaders have also been getting arrested, a lot of the sitting MLAs.

Now, just when Delhi assembly election was about to be announced, Prime Minister Modi accused AAP chief  Arvind Kejriwal of living in a ‘sheesh mahal’ and called the  AAP government as govt of ‘aapda’, meaning  that it is a  misfortune. He also accused Kejriwal of dishonesty and not fulfilling poll promises. I wonder what he meant by ‘aapda’.The  AAP govt has been showcasing Delhi Govt’s schools, their impressive academic achievements, state of the art buildings, new Universities, free health care for all through mohalla clinics and hospitals and of course free water and Bijli. The AAP Government has also announced round- the- clock clean water supply, free health care for senior citizens of any socio-economic segment of society and the  funding of education of students coming from the Scheduled Castes  in foreign Universities. It is an impressive line of development  activities  and promise of such work in future.

Then a senior BJP leader called  Chief Minister Atishi’s father a terrorist as he had signed the  mercy petition of Afzal Guru. He went on to say that the Chief Minister’s father should go to Pakistan! Now this was after another BJP leader, who is also its candidate against  Atishi, accused her of changing her father as she had changed her surname given by parents! Many more BJP leaders followed the suit.

Another controversy  started about the CM’s house. Earlier, when Arvind Kejriwal  vacated the CM’s house in October last , CM Atishi  moved into it only to be told that she hasn’t been allocated the house and  she should vacate it immediately. The Lt. Governor of Delhi also made an issue out of it. I do not remember if ever an elected Chief Minister was humiliated like this. In fact the  AAP MLAs, ministers and the Chief Ministers have all along  been very shabbily treated  by the Lt. Governor and higher bureaucracy at the behest of the Union Government and denied the dignity the elected representatives of people  deserve and get in our democratic set-up.

A pattern started right after the AAP electoral victory in 2015 under  which  leaders  have been  systematically discredited in public eye and now the  final stamp on it has been  put by Prime Minister Modi himself in his 2025  election campaign speeches.

But this is not all about the BJP’s attempts to capture power in Delhi. The AAP leaders are accusing the Election authorities of manipulating the  electoral college. As per the  Election Commission data released a couple of days ago there is an increase of 7,67,000 voters in Delhi since the Lok Sabha elections about eight months ago . And this figure has been  arrived at after removing almost equal number of voters as invalid. For example in the New Delhi constituency there are about 1,10,000 voters in which . 4500 voters have been removed and 13500 voters have been added. In the 2020 Delhi assembly elections the  Aam Admi Party  got a total of  4974000 votes whereas in May 2024 Lok Saha polls, BJP secured 4844000 votes . With  a difference of only 1,30,000 votes it seems the BJP has been catching up well thanks to the revision of electoral rolls.

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