Focusing on issues that touch people’s lives helps AAP
Welfare deliverables yield electoral dividends, macroeconomic interventions need not necessarily win elections. Tangible work on the ground wins public goodwill, intangible and ideological appeals cannot be a substitute for a result-oriented election agenda. Local issues matter in state elections, national issues don’t. This seems to be the message of the Delhi Assembly election results, which have given Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his party, the Aam Aadmi Party, a third term to rule the national capital. Less than a year after the AAP was drubbed in the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, when it drew a blank and garnered only 18% of the vote share, the party has bounced back with a bang, its performance only a shade worse than its 2015 showing.
The message from the Delhi elections as well as the ones in Jharkhand, Maharashtra and even Haryana is loud and clear: The Indian voter has begun to make a distinction between who they want at the national level and in the states. Just because the electorate gave a massive mandate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP in the national elections does not necessarily mean that the voters think Modi and his party are best suited for them when it comes to choosing a state leader.
The AAP’s campaign showcased its remarkable work in education, health, free water, subsidised power and free bus rides for women. Added to this were the Delhi government’s successful steps in weeding out retail corruption from daily life through doorstep delivery of public services such as driving licence, birth and death certificates, and caste documents. All of them are local issues that touch the lives of the people. In contrast, the BJP, bereft of city-based issues and a recognisable local face, relied on nationalism and the top leadership’s personal appeal. Both came a cropper.
But Kejriwal has his task cut out in his third stint. For all the good work his government has done in many areas, there are several others he needs to pay urgent attention to, like public transport, infrastructure and pollution. Delhiites will hope he delivers.