 "Surveys predict AAP will sweep Delhi elections: Arvind Kejriwal")
Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal tells Manish Kumar that AAP will not be a junior partner in any government in New Delhi. Edited excerpts:
Some people say Aam Aadmi Party will not be able to form a government, but all you will do is prove to be a spoilsport for the BJP by eating into the anti-Congress votes. How do you react to this?
AAP was formed only in November last year. In less than a year, various surveys and polls are predicting that AAP would get more than 25% vote share. The recent ABP Neilson survey has also said that our party would get more that 26% votes. Our estimate is that we would get around 32% votes if polling is held today. As election nears, the vote share is bound to increase further to a very significant figure. What is interesting is that our share has only increased over the months whereas that of Cong and BJP has dipped. This upward trend is indicative of a party that is going to sweep the elections rather than that of a 'spoilsport'. This has happened only twice in history before, once with TDP and other with Assam Gan Parishad.
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In case of a hung Assembly, would you support either the BJP or the Congress in forming the government?
No
Then you will force another election on the people of Delhi?
Talking in terms of pure facts and figures, surveys are predicting a landslide win for AAP. Moreover, the common man of Delhi is tired of both Congress and BJP. It wants clean politics now, which is being delivered by AAP. If we align ourselves with BJP or Congress, this would be like cheating people of Delhi. We will never align with these parties to form a government. We are confident that AAP would form government on its own.
Yogendra Yadav was removed from UGC panel for allegedly ‘politicising the UGC.’ However, according to a newspaper report, Subhash Yadav, former deputy chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, was appointed as a member of the commision even though he was an active member of the Congress. What is AAP’s reaction in light of this fact?
Right from the time of Annaji's aandolan, there has been targeted attack on us. Manish Sisodia's NGO was accused of getting foreign funds. For 3 days, Home Ministry officials sat day and night at his office but could not find an iota of irregularity. Finally, they had to tell the courts that all the accounts of the NGO are correct. Similarly, other leaders have been targeted as well. But we are not afraid as this only shows the frustration of other parties.
Do you think Narendra Modi's coronation as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate would have any impact on the Assembly elections in Delhi?
It is too early to comment on the issue. However, people know that in Delhi BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate would be Vijay Goel and not Modi. If Goel is not anointed as CM candidate there are atleast 5 more contenders for the top post. The results of various polls indicate that BJP's fortunes have fallen drastically due to infighting.
Lalu Prasad and another Congress MP were convicted recently in corruption cases. Your party has always taken a high moral ground on the issue of corruption in politics. Do you think it will help check corruption in politics?
Corruption is the root cause of most of the problems which are plaguing our country today. And one of the root causes of corruption is political corruption which is evident from scams like 2G, coalgate etc. It is the hard earned money of a taxpayer like you and me that is being looted away. Unless and until we put a stop to this corruption, we will not move towards development.