Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal is not only confident of emerging victorious in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, but has even decided how and when his government will convene a special session to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill if his party come to power.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Mr. Kejriwal said when the AAP is sworn in, it will convene a special Assembly session on December 29 at the Ramlila Maidan and pass the Jan Lokpal Bill as promised. Mr. Kejriwal said December 29 has been chosen because it was on this day in 2011 that Rajya Sabha member Rajniti Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal tore a copy of the Bill in Parliament.
Targeting the other political parties for failing to pass the Bill, he said despite assurances and expression of intent to do so, there has been no move to pass the Bill in the Parliament.
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The AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, Mr. Kejriwal refused to even consider the possibility of the AAP not coming to power. He asserted that the party’s claims of winning the Delhi polls are based on “scientific data” and consecutive polls spread over the past six months have indicated that the party is on a winning curve.
On what gives the party the confidence to claim a walkover against a three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Yogendra Yadav said: “Few parties work on the basis of evidence…we conducted a poll in Delhi in February that showed AAP’s chances of winning at 14 per cent, whereas the Congress and the BJP were given 35 per cent each. Subsequently, at the end of August, we conducted another round of survey, which showed the Congress and the BJP having lost their margin by nine and four per cent, respectively, but the AAP had gained by 13 per cent. We have put the raw data on our website for all to see and examine.”
He said the forthcoming elections in Delhi will be “bipolar” as it will be a choice between the “honest politics” of the AAP and the “corrupt collective politics of the BJP and the Congress”. “This is for the first time that polls in Delhi will be a realigning election. So far it has been a contest between the BJP and the Congress, but now it will be a choice between the Congress and the BJP on one side and the AAP on the other.”
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Mr. Kejriwal went so far as to claim that the BJP and the Congress have modified their campaign strategy to target the AAP and are refraining from referring to each other. “In their respective campaigns both parties are only targeting the AAP, the Congress makes no mention of the BJP and vice versa. They are speaking the same language, they are both accusing the AAP of being the ‘agent’ of the other, and it almost seems that they have jointly executed their strategy.”
Commenting on the stand that both parties have taken on the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers, Mr. Kejriwal said both the Congress and the BJP should “walk the talk” by fielding candidates with no cases of heinous crimes against them. The mainstream parties should also take a cue from the AAP and give details of all donations received by them, he said.
The party will contest elections for the first time on December 4, when Delhi goes to polls. It admitted that its foray into national politics will be decided after the Delhi debut.