Sagar Vishnoi
Elections have started in five states. The election campaign is at its peak, but there is a lot of different things being seen among the parties regarding the issues. What political parties often do is that when they are in government, they either copy new schemes from other states or fulfill the promises attached to their manifesto. There is a continuity in this. Congress, BJP or Samajwadi Party have all done almost the same thing, but recently a new trend has been introduced by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – to launch a scheme based on political issues of the national scene. Irrespective of the political issue raised by any party. This is the reason that in many states other parties are seen copying the promises of the Aam Aadmi Party.
When the Aam Aadmi Party won in Delhi in 2020, it again had a huge majority, but this time the strategy was different. Not only for politics, but also for governance. Unlike the rest of the parties, where the Aam Aadmi Party is doing politics based on issues like education, health, electricity, at the same time it also seems to be progressive, trying to bring innovation in its governance instead of one’s dress, or religion-provoking politics. Still working. BJP has readymade issues like Ram Mandir, Article 370 and national security. Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress are counting the works of their old governments. On the other hand, the Congress is doing politics by raising the issues on the national stage, surprising the most.
Vocal Issues and Congress
Big leaders of Congress are seen speaking their words only till Twitter. Big Congress leaders remain absent from the ground and also from the issues. In elections, Congress leaders are speaking fiercely on Twitter on a sensitive topic like marital rape, while this topic was nowhere in the mainstream. It is not that this topic should not be talked about, but when your party is in five state elections, then the top leadership raising the issue on the ground and not in Parliament but on Twitter without any legal side, shows a crisis for the leadership and the organization. Is.
Similarly, the launch of the campaign ‘Ladki hoon laden sakti hoon’ for ‘UP Elections 2022’ only seems to impress the masses of Twitter. The reason is not that three of the five girls shown in the campaign poster have joined the BJP, but that the Congress only talked about the issue of feminism, did not give women the feeling that women had the power to like them or vote for them. Feelings come.
This sentiment could have been propagated by implementing women based policies in Congress ruled states. Like BJP did Ujjwala, Mamta Banerjee Kanyashree, Rupashree and AAP did it through free women’s bus service. There should be talk of women in politics and campaigns like this too, but it is suicidal to carry only ‘girl hoon ladki hoon’ issue in elections.
Similarly, reacting like a bikini comment to the hijab issue was an invitation to attack yourself, which could have been avoided. Politics is not for loose talk. Unlike the Congress, the Samajwadi Party showed maturity by speaking jobs in response to the BJP’s hijab. These strategies of Congress are keeping it out of issue based elections.
Aam Aadmi Party’s wisdom
At the same time, Aam Aadmi Party is easily understanding the vein of politics and public. This is not the party of 2014, which was running on activism. Now it is a mature political party, which is slowly building up its long term vision. There are many examples of this as well.
No matter how much the BJP beats the drum of being a nationalist party, the Congress may call itself the oldest nationalist party, but Arvind Kejriwal and his party, who made education an issue in the elections, first started the patriotic curriculum in 2021.
Under the Patriotic Curriculum, there are courses on the Constitution from the Freedom Fighters to the Class XII from Nursery to Class XII. This is a unique initiative in the education sector in itself. The rest of the parties were only aggressive on social media, Kejriwal’s government put it into practice.
Similarly, giving one crore amount by the Chief Minister himself to the martyr’s house is a scheme of the Delhi government, in which the Delhi government hardly misses. Similarly, recently on 26 January 2022, the national flag was unveiled at 75 places in Delhi and there is a plan to put up 500 flags all over Delhi.
BJP started the politics of flag but the AAP government is bringing it to the ground. At the same time, putting photographs of Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh in all government offices, MLA offices is also a part of this plan.
BJP’s temple campaign ended on the construction of Ram temple, but Aam Aadmi Party’s started after that. Shortly after the Ram temple construction process started, Arvind Kejriwal announced that he would run special trains for the elderly from Delhi to Ayodhya under the Mukhyamantri Teerth Yojna, which he also started in December.
Now the movement for Ram Mandir was done by BJP. After the court’s decision, they also celebrated it with gusto, but they did not have a roadmap or plan of any such scheme, which would link it with governance. The Aam Aadmi Party made a plan on this in view of the public’s sentiment towards the temple. He took this plan from Uttarakhand to Goa.
When the term of a political issue starts to end, it can be revived through governance or planning and its duration can be extended. It would not be wrong to say that if the Aam Aadmi Party implements ‘Girls Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon’ in governance, then one will be surprised. The surprise is that despite having a smaller cadre and less funding than other parties, the Aam Aadmi Party is adept at doing politics.
These are personal views of the author. The author Sagar Vishnoi is a Political Consultant and Electoral Analyst by profession. Sagar has studied strategy from Columbia University.
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