The Aam Aadmi Party's unexpectedly strong showing in Delhi has been the most eye-catching story of this round of Assembly elections. Formed in the wake of the anti-corruption agitations of a couple of years ago, few gave the fledgling AAP, under Arvind Kejriwal, much of a chance at electoral politics. Even after it became clear that it took the Delhi elections extremely seriously, and had created a real political organisation based around thousands of volunteers to challenge the two entrenched parties that have dominated the capital's politics for decades, few expected it to get more than five or ten seats at best. That it has won 28 seats in the 70-member legislative assembly, and around 30 per cent of the vote, reducing the incumbent Congress to tiny enclaves of support in a state that party has won since 1998, is a tremendous achievement. However, the AAP's leadership should realise that it cannot stop there. For the true impact of its achievement to give it a boost around the rest of the country, it should be seen as a genuine alternative source of governance. And that will require it to seek the mantle of power.
No party has received a simple majority in the Delhi Assembly. The Bharatiya Janata Party missed the half-way mark by three, winning 32 seats - and actually saw its vote share decline since 2008. Its chief ministerial candidate, Harsh Vardhan, has said that he does not have the numbers to form a government. Now, if either the Congress, which still has eight MLAs, or the BJP offers to support an AAP government from outside, should the AAP let all those who voted for it down by refusing to take over the Delhi government? It has worked hard for a year to counter any criticism that it was a party of eternal dissidents that was interested more in destructive criticism than anything else. It worked at collating local-level inputs on what would make for a better Delhi into a series of manifestos, one for each constituency and for the city as a whole. A refusal by the AAP to take power even when offered would be seen as vitiating that entire process.
The question that is being asked now is: can the AAP scale up from Delhi? In order to do that, it needs to be seen as a credible political force. Only then will winnable candidates, local community leaders, and finally voters accrete to its standard in areas where the anti-corruption movement did not perform as strongly as it did in Delhi. It is clear that many in the cities are eager for a non-Congress, non-BJP option - indeed, for something that breaks the mould of traditional politics. But they do not long for such a force only in order to vote for it - they do so in order to see a change in the way that government responds to them. This can't happen if their chosen representatives shy away from power if it is available. If the AAP wishes to build on its tremendous performance in the Delhi elections; if it wishes to stay faithful to all those who voted for it; and if it wishes to genuinely transform politics, it should seek power, not shun it.
