Would you vote for AAP ?

avi

avi

Skilled
Although it looks enticing, I would not for now. Years ago, during my college times, there was a new political startup - Paritrana. Back then it was my dream to join the party. Now it has gone the way of dodo. Politics is not just about right intentions; it is about the right organization.

As a startup, AAP has to first make its MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and prove that it has the ability to make a change in a small environment. The MVP here is an experimental approach in cleaning up one city. Then it can worry about scaling. Trying to attack the national politics from the word go is stupid when they have not proven themselves at a state or even at a district level.

Even the Mahatma (who had a million times better organization skills than anyone alive) took that slow approach. He first fought for local issues (such as the farmer issues in Champaran and salt issue in Dandi) before scaling that into a national movement.

Vote Split
In the year 2000, when Al Gore and George Bush were bitterly fighting for the White House, a little known Green Party entered the scene and spoiled the party. The environmentalists traditionally voted for the Democrats (Al Gore), but now had a new option. Facing with the choice, some of them went for the Green party. Those few were enough to change the outcome of the election. In the end the difference was less than 600 votes and the Green party split 97K votes from Gore.

The environmentalists had to face a much worser choice (George W. Bush) due to their support of the Green party.
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Indian case is not different. Any vote for AAP will make the outcomes worse for those voting. In the end, neither BJP nor AAP would win. The winner will be Congress (just as the winner in the above election was George Bush).

If I were consulting the AAP, I would ask them to first focus on the Delhi state elections and then expand their influence over other metros by winning local councillor elections. If they can't even win local councilor and MLA elections, how can they win the national elections?

Once they have done the first step, they can start creating change. Over a 5 year period they can build a variety of achievements and prove the electorate that they mean business.

Until they reach that point, voting for the AAP in the national elections is pointless. It will just split the urban middleclass vote and aid the Congress (who is weak in urban India and get their votes from the illiterates). Only when the herd unites can you ward off the predator.
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A close friend of mine quit his software engineer job and is building a grassroots political movement with the help of Loksatta. Ashok Rajendran for Mylapore MLA. The AAP should tap into such people and build the momentum from the ground-up and not top-down.

In short, voting for the AAP in national elections is as good as voting the Congress. If you want the status quo by all means vote for the AAP. But, you can be honest and just vote for INC if that is your intention.
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http://www.quora.com/Politics/Would...o-in-2014-And-why/answer/Balaji-Viswanathan-2
 
Quite true in a sense. The only reason the current political parties are still standing is that they had really good people who founded them. I think to make a party like the Congress, a group of people will need atleast 20 years to get it set up. AAP will need a lot of time and manpower and support from people. Their main selling point now is to root out corruption. I don't think it will work if they don't take the bottom up approach.
 
Well lets see
So far they have:
1) Behaved like goondas - Refused to pay their electricity bills
2) Stuck campaign posters all over Delhi infrastructure - in violation of laws (even if other parties do this that doesn't give them an excuse to do the same)
3) Politicized rape in the name of votes.
4) Made me get late for office a number of times due to their protests.

So no.
 
6pack said:
Quite true in a sense. The only reason the current political parties are still standing is that they had really good people who founded them. I think to make a party like the Congress, a group of people will need atleast 20 years to get it set up. AAP will need a lot of time and manpower and support from people. Their main selling point now is to root out corruption. I don't think it will work if they don't take the bottom up approach.
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+1. However, people rooting against corruption will have a hard time continuing to be corruption free themselves, given the country is India -- ultimately it's all about money and power.
 
Has there been any local body election that someone representing the AAP has contested/won? How has that person been?

To me it only appears like someone who's trying to make the most of the shite that's been going on in the country for their benefits - so NOPE, I'm not gonna vote for them.
 
I would vote for them if they were contesting in my constituency, and the candidate had good credentials, whether any previous experience in politics or not.

There are some policies of them which I don't agree with, but overall, they are far better than either Congress or the BJP.

Most people blame the ruling party and vote for the opposition come next elections, or just put their votes on the party they think will win (don't want to waste their votes), but they forget that even the opposition party members where sitting in the parliament when the bills and resolutions are passed. They are all equally responsible for the mess, whether in power or not.
 
At the way things currently are, I just want to see a decisive government (opposition party or not) at the center. Lack of cohesion and planning have landed us in major economic trouble. And yes, I do subscribe to the theory that a better economy is proven to lift more people out of poverty and create a more prosperous (if not happier) society.

Thinking along those lines, I really wouldn't vote for them but I in no way, despise them or their party. It's what multiparty democracy is all about!
 
AAP is being propped up by congress just like MNS in maharashtra to split the anti-incumbency votes.

First Aap decided to play dirty minority vote bank politics by saying batla encounter is fake, they immediately got a nap on their knuckles when the HC judgement came.
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prashant bhushan is famous for supporting kashmiri independence. they have binayak sen who was in jail for naxalism links.

then coming to their much hyped anti corruption drive. Last october kejriwal had announced an internal lokpal to probe against AAP mumbai members mayank gandhi & anjali damania and promised to complete the probe within 6 months and to take action against them of land grabbing charges if found guilty. what happened even after 1 year? no probe, no report, no action. this exposed their hypocrisy on the anti-corruption drive.

One can better vote directly for congress instead of voting indirectly for congress through aap.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-pr...-as-aap-sweeps-up-bjp-votes/423066-37-64.html
 
The only thing AAP will achieve in Delhi is to steal some votes from the 2 leading national parties. Best case scenario, AAP has minimal effect and we have majority state government. Worst Case scenario (which seems very likely) is that it is able to corner enough seats to effect a hung assembly. Kejriwal has openly declared that it will not align with any other party to create a government but IMO when push comes to shove, AAP will align with the BJP to form the govt. but this arrangement would not last long and could lead to mid-term polls.

AAP itself is full of inexperienced people who realistically would not be able to affect much change either and I feel most of their members are associated with it to fulfill their personal political ambitions and have no real intent to serve the country in general. So on both the counts a Big NO from my end.
 
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