Background
In the 2013 Delhi state elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (along with its pre-poll ally Shiromani Akali Dal) emerged as the single-largest party, winning 32 out of the 70 seats. However they fell short of an outright majority and therefore were unable to form the government. This led the then Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung to invite the Aam Aadmi Party, the second largest party after the BJP, to form the government. [2] On 28 December 2013, AAP formed the state government after taking outside support from the Indian National Congress. [3] AAP's leader Arvind Kejriwal, who defeated the incumbent chief minister Sheila Dikshit, became the 7th chief minister of Delhi. However, on 14 February 2014 (after 49 days of rule), Arvind Kejriwal resigned from his post citing the reason as his government's inability to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in Delhi Assembly for discussion due to stiff opposition from other political parties in the house.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress. As of 2018, it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies, and it is the world's largest party in terms of primary membership. BJP is a right-wing party, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu nationalist positions. It has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is a political party in India. There are a large number of parties with the name "Shiromani Akali Dal". The party recognised as "Shiromani Akali Dal Badal" by the Election Commission of India is the one led by Sukhbir Singh Badal. It controls Sikh religious bodies Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and is the largest and most influential Punjabi political party worldwide. The basic philosophy of Akali Dal Badal is to give a political voice to Sikh issues and it believes that religion and politics go hand in hand. Shiromani Akali Dal Badal is part of the BJP led NDA.Wife of Sukhbir Singh Badal is Union Cabinet Minister.Brother in Laws of Sukhbir Singh Badal are Ministers and main office bearers of family controlled party.
Delhi remained thereafter under President's Rule for about a year. On 4 November 2014, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung recommended the Union Cabinet for the dissolution of Delhi assembly and conduct fresh elections. [4] [5] On 12 January 2015, the Election Commission of India announced that state assembly elections would be held on 7 February 2015 with results being announced on 10 February 2015. [1]
Najeeb Jung is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer who served as the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Delhi from July 2013 to December 2016. He previously served as the 13th Vice-Chancellor of the Jamia Millia Islamia from 2009 to 2013.
The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India. The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies and Legislative Council in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country. The Election Commission operates under the authority of Constitution per Article 324, and subsequently enacted Representation of the People Act. The commission has the powers under the Constitution, to act in an appropriate manner when the enacted laws make insufficient provisions to deal with a given situation in the conduct of an election. Being a constitutional authority, Election Commission is amongst the few institutions which function with both autonomy and freedom, along with the country’s higher judiciary, the Union Public Service Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Campaign
Safety of women, corruption, water problems and price rises were the main issues in the election. [10]
Aam Aadmi Party
AAP started campaigning in Delhi in November 2014 and inducted several first-time candidates, with as many as 27 out of 70 MLA candidates. [11] AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal is the chief minister candidate and contesting the elections from the New Delhi seat again. [12] Other known names and prominent faces in their candidate list are Jarnail Singh, Surinder Singh (commando), former Transport Minister for Delhi Saurabh Bhardwaj, former Education Minister Manish Sisodia, and former Law Minister Somnath Bharti.
Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian politician and a former bureaucrat who is the current and 7th Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Previously he worked in the Indian Revenue Service as a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi. Kejriwal is a graduate in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
The rallies and roadshows of Arvind Kejriwal were a great success, drawing large enthusiastic crowds. [13] His nomination rally-cum-roadshow drew massive crowd and included flash mobs, slogans and chant of "5 Saal Kejriwal" song. [13] [14] AAP has consistently targeted the issues of corruption, security, education, environmental pollution, employment opportunities for youth and making Delhi a world class city. [15] [16]
Kejriwal's statement "Paise lekar sting kar lo" created controversies by asking volunteers to take bribes from other parties and do a sting. Kejriwal claimed that BJP had been trying to bribe AAP volunteers. [17] The situation rose The Election Commission of India, which issued notice to Kejriwal to desist from breaking the laws governing the model code of conduct for elections in India. [18] The Delhi court finally allowed Kejriwal to put forth his plea on the matter. [19]
BJP targeted AAP and Kejriwal in a series of controversial negative newspaper ads. AAP claimed that one of these ads made a derogatory reference to Kejriwal's caste, while another one with a garlanded portrait of Anna Hazare signified Hazare's death. [20] [21] AAP threatened to complain about these ads to the Election Commission of India.
Noted music composer and party sympathizer Vishal Dadlani composed a song "Panch Saal Kejriwaal" (5 years of Kejriwal Government) in December 2014 to give a boost to AAP's campaign. The song was seen used in flash mobs, roadshows and rallies and was well received. [22] AAP's campaign included advertisements on bus stops, bill boards and in the Delhi Metro, mostly focusing on Blue and Yellow Lines. To save costs ads were put up only on one side of the Metro. [23]
The last days of the campaign saw TV actors Ayub Khan and Smita Bansal joining AAP. [24] The AAP strategy for campaigning included flash mobs, street plays (nukkad natak), human banners, posters and pamphlets in auto-rickshaws. [25]
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee tweeted on 5 February "My request to all of you in Delhi to please vote for AAP. For the greater need of the country and development in Delhi". TMC has stringently criticized BJP's central government in recent past. Also CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said in an interview, "15 seats are being contested jointly by Left parties in the Delhi polls. Rest of the 55 seats, our party has decided that it will ask our party members and voters to vote for the AAP. Most of the other left parties are also of the same view". [26]
Bharatiya Janata Party
On 10 January 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the BJP's campaign for the Delhi assembly polls by holding an Abhinandan rally at the Ramlila Maidan. [27] With some recent corruption allegations on BJP-Delhi unit head Satish Upadhyay, and on speculation of increasing internal fights for CM position between several big leaders liker Jagdeesh Mukhi, Vijay Goel and Satish Upadhyay, on 15 January 2015, BJP added Kiran Bedi as a prominent face to lead Delhi Campaign. Within 4 days, on 19 January, India's first woman IPS officer, anti-corruption activist and Magsaysay awardee Kiran Bedi was announced by the BJP as their candidate for chief minister in Delhi. [28]
Analysts questioned BJP's decision to project Kiran Bedi as the party's CM candidate, when two opinion polls indicated that AAP had gained ground over BJP after the announcement of her candidature. [29] [30] Kiran Bedi was seen leaving news interviews and even questions of her being the first woman IPS and her role in towing Indra Gandhi's convoy car were raised. [31] [32] Her induction led to internal rifts in the party, but the party president Amit Shah defended the decision. [33] On 2 February, Kiran Bedi's manager announced his resignation blaming her "dictatorial attitude", but then withdrew the resignation and apologized on the same day. [34]
Key party strategist Arun Jaitley was tasked with bringing together the BJP's campaign efforts, with regular meetings at the Delhi BJP office, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing four rallies. Also 11 central ministers and 17 lawmakers of the party were deployed in the campaign for Delhi. [35] Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hit the campaign trail addressing several rallies in South and North West Delhi. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, held a public meeting in Bijwasan area of South West Delhi. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is scheduled to campaign for BJP Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister Ananth Kumar have been making rounds of Delhi BJP office for the last couple of days. [36] As of 29 January,Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has brought in 22 of its top ministers at the Centre and 17 MPs to take charge of the campaign. [37] According to another source " around 58 Union ministers and MPs took charge of Delhi constituencies. More than 70 MPs have been assigned to oversee preparations for the Feb. 7 polls to the 70-member Assembly," said a senior BJP leader. [38] [39] [40] [41] Shazia Ilmi a member of AAP who has joined BJP saying BJP stands for good governance and development. [42]
BJP actively used the media for their campaign, and released a series of newspaper advertisements targeting AAP's CM candidate Arvind Kejriwal. [43]
During the last phases of the campaign rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi got poor turnouts and the BJP Delhi state unit was seen complaining about appointing Kiran Bedi as the CM candidate. [44]
BJP had prepoll alliance with Shiromani Akali Dal, whose candidates contested four seats: three on BJP's symbol and one on SAD's own symbol. [45]
Indian National Congress
On 13 January 2015, Ajay Maken was announced as the head of the Congress campaign committee. [46] Maken is also the party's chief minister candidate. [12] On 19 January, Maken released a booklet titled 49 dino ki ultee chaal, Dilli hui behal listing Kejriwal's U-turns and misgovernance during his 49-day government. [47]
Other parties
Other parties such as Bahujan Samaj Party, Poorvanchal Rashtriya Congress and Janata Dal are also part of the campaign but none have enough candidates to get a majority vote to form government on their own. [48]
Voting
Polling took place at 12,177 polling stations. As many as 95,000 government officials were deployed for election duty. 16,000 control units 20,000 ballot units were to be used for polling. As for security inside polling booths, 1,200 micro observers oversaw the entire procedure and also reported technical problems in EVM operations. According to the Delhi CEO, a total of 43,235 postal ballots were received in comparison to 41,095 during the Assembly Elections 2013. [97]
A record 67.08% turnout was registered on the election day. The voter turnout was 1.22% higher than 65.86% polling in 2013 Assembly polls. The polling percentage was 65.07% in the Lok Sabha polls in April, 2014. [98]
Allegations on Breaking Code of Conduct
BJP’s candidate Surjeet Kumar from Mangolpuri was detained on night before Election following allegations of liquor distribution. As per the reports, he was caught distributing liquor to people around 3.30 am. [99] Liquor bottles recovered from a car purportedly owned by him. [100]
AAP lodged a complaint to Election Commission against Kiran Bedi for violating model code of conduct in Krishna Nagar Constituency by holding pad-yatra and asking for votes on the day of Election. [101] [102]
Exit polls
| Survey | Date | | | | | Ref(s) |
|---|
| AAP | BJP | INC | Others |
|---|
| India TV-C Voter | 7/02/2015 | 35-43 | 25-33 | 0-2 | 0 | [103] |
| India Today-Cicero | 7/02/2015 | 38–46 | 19–27 | 3–5 | 0-2 | [104] |
| ABP-Nielsen | 7/02/2015 | 43 | 26 | 1 | 0 | [105] |
| Today's Chanakya | 7/02/2015 | 48 | 22 | 0 | 0 | [106] |
| Axis | 7/02/2015 | 53 | 17 | 0 | 0 | [106] |
| News Nation | 7/02/2015 | 41-45 | 23-27 | 1-3 | 0-1 | [107] |
| Data Mineria | 7/02/2015 | 31 | 35 | 4 | 0 | [108] |
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