Powerful Broom
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 09, 2013 -

True to the showing in the exit polls results this time, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has undoubtedly emerged as the big winner, giving a crushing blow to the Congress.

Apart from retaining foothold in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, BJP has captured Rajasthan from Congress.

In Madhya Pradesh, BJP has come up with a thumping majority winning 165 seats in the 230-member State Assembly leaving only 58 seats in the kitty of Congress while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others have shared 4 and 3 seats respectively.

In Chhattisgarh, after hours of neck-to-neck race, BJP finally consolidated its position for the third time winning 49 seats in a house of 90 members.

Despite putting up a tough fight the whole day, Congress had to content with 39 seats only.

The BSP and an Independent got one seat each to complete the 90 seat tally in the 10th largest State in the Central India.

In Rajasthan, the conquest of BJP by ousting Congress party was truly humiliating for the latter.

It was a massive victory for the BJP as the saffron party has garnered a whooping 162 seats, decimating Congress with just 21 seats and others with 16 seats in the 199-member Rajasthan State Assembly.

However, the attempt to conquest Delhi by BJP has been stopped by Aam Aadmi Party in its electoral debut itself. Despite emerging as the single largest party winning 31 seats, BJP is still short of the majority mark of 36 in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

AAP may be the second largest party winning 28 seats followed by Congress with 8 seats and one seat each going to an Independent, JD (U) and Akali Dal in the house of 70-member Delhi Assembly, but its phenomenal success in the first electoral has caught all the attention of the Nation, and even the conquest of BJP in other key States has been overshadowed.

The success of AAP under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, who even managed to show the door to the three times Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by over 25,000 votes so effortlessly, has surprised not just both the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP but also the political watchdogs and observers around the globe.

So, what is the reason behind this meteoric rise and stupendous success of a political newbie in the National Capital whose electorates, despite being urbane and discerning, have often demonstrated worst voter apathy in the electoral history of the country?

From the writings on the wall during and in the aftermath of the Nation-wide anti-corruption campaign erupted under the leadership of Gandhian Anna Hazare last year, political parties and the governments should have woken up from their slumber and listen to the pulse of the people who want to bring a genuine change in the dirty system.

Of course, whether AAP would be able to replicate its success in other parts of the country is yet to be seen.

But the very fact that the seat of the power at the National capital itself has been shaken by a new political outfit riding on the wave of anti-corruption movement shows that the message has already been conveyed to all the Governments and political parties in the country that they need to ensure good governance and provide corruption free rule if they do not want to be swept away by the powerful broom of anti-corruption campaigners.