Not only was the voting for the Delhi Assembly last week stunning, what has followed is hardly less extraordinary. There is a stiff competition between the BJP, the party which came first, and the AAP, which came second, to sit in the Opposition.
Since AAP’s propulsion was said to be based on capturing the high moral ground, it is now being propagated that the party is keen not to take the help of the BJP or the Congress to lead a government as doing so would make it forfeit the lofty domain it has now come to hold.
The BJP, on the other hand, is said to be scared stiff that if it succeeds in forming a government with the help of MLAs from other parties, it will be accused of engaging in horse-trading when the atmosphere is presumably charged with an anti-corruption spirit.
With the BJP’s Delhi leader, Dr Harsh Vardhan, informing the lieutenant-governor that his party was short on the public mandate, and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal expected to follow suit on Saturday, a fresh election is strongly indicated.
Politically speaking, this is what both the BJP and AAP are counting on. They think the people would vote them in with a clear majority the next time round.
The BJP harbours an additional consideration. It thinks if the re-election for the Delhi Assembly were held along with the Lok Sabha poll in April, it will sweep everything in its wake as it believes that the Modi factor will be all important even for those who voted AAP in the just held state poll.
These are imponderables, of course. Besides, the calculations are based on the political guess of parties (that can take help and form a government even now) that they would do better the next time round. But what if the re-election for Delhi and the poll for the Lok Sabha were held separately?
There is another matter to consider. What if the new election too threw up a hung Assembly? Will those urging the high moral ground ask for a third election?
So far, the political calculation of future gains has prevailed. It is like a student being given a second chance to crack an exam, with no price to pay.
The BJP and AAP overlook the fact that governance is a lofty enough end. The electorate takes the trouble to vote in order to uphold the cause of controlling the public purse for the public good by parties, and not to pander to their fancies.
In Bihar, two unlikely parties — CPI and BJP — came together to form a government when a hung Assembly came into being some years back. The tie-up was based on a common programme of executive action, and not horse-trading. This is a point to consider.
