oppn parties AAP: Going Into Overdrive

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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oppn parties
AAP: Going Into Overdrive

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-04-07 06:46:36

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

After its landmark victory in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party is making a bid to win other states which it has focused on. Starting with Gujarat, where the party held a roadshow in Ahmedabad a few days ago with party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann leading the affair, the party held another roadshow in the Mandi town of Himachal Pradesh yesterday. AAP names them 'Tiranga Rallies' and party workers carry the national flag to whip up patriotic fervor.

Both the rallies were well attended making Kejriwal extremely happy and confident. That is one of the reasons why the party wants to hold rallies now as it knows there is a buzz around AAP after its big win in Punjab. He showcases the Delhi model of governance with its emphasis on service delivery, making government departments corruption-free and focusing on health and education. At the Himachal rally, he also claimed that Punjab has been made corruption-free in just 20 days. Kejriwal is now relying on word-of-mouth publicity as he repeatedly exhorts people attending these rallies to call their relatives in Delhi and Punjab to verify what he claims.

It is now clear that AAP is trying to occupy the Congress space in national politics. In the recent elections in five states, it did so well in Punjab and tried to do it in Goa and Uttarakhand with limited success. Now it is trying the same in Gujarat and Himachal, with Haryana, Rajasthan and Karnataka next on the agenda. For the time being it is avoiding direct conflict with regional parties.

But all is not going well for the party. After the roadshow in Gujarat, nearly 100 mid-level leaders from the party switched sides and joined the BJP. Also, the Punjab assembly's resolution demanding immediate transfer of Chandigarh to the state is likely to hamper the party's prospects in Haryana. Kejriwal said in the Himachal rally that AAP does not know politics, it just knows to work, rooting out corruption and patriotism. But as AAP tries to expand its footprint, it will have to learn politics too as elections in India are as much about performance and track record as about managing a huge number of electoral issues that involve dirty politics.