‘AAP ready to play the role of a constructive Opposition’

“It is a historic win, but not of the Aam Admi Party (AAP), but the common man of the country. And the fight to make the country corruption-free and provide a clean and good governance will go across the country in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” said party’s convenor Arvind Kejriwal.

Addressing journalists amid loud cheers by his supporters here, he said that the “AAP’s success goes beyond the simple count of votes and seats.”

“The real significance of the rise of AAP lies in the challenge that it has posed to the established ways of the politics. We are here to challenge the political establishment throughout the country. Our next mission would be to offer a genuine political alternative in the Lok Sabha elections 2014,” he said while announcing that AAP was ready to play the role of a “constructive Opposition” and would not seek support from any party to form the government.

“The election results show that the common people are fed up with the politics of the BJP and the Congress which is slave to religion, caste and region. We do not have a personal enmity with Sheila Dikshit. This is a fight of principles and against corruption,” said Mr. Kejriwal, who defeated the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a huge margin of 25,864 votes in the New Delhi constituency.

“And if these parties don't change, people will uproot these parties. When the common people of the country wake up, the biggest of the thrones gets shaken. Who are we? We are the common people of this country. Just see, how many common persons have defeated the bigwigs,” said Mr. Kejriwal.

While referring to its political non-entities who proved giant killers by defeating Congress stalwarts including three Congress Ministers in the Delhi Cabinet, he said: “Rakhi Birla who defeated the sitting Congress Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan from Mangolpuri, is the youngest candidate of the party and has worked as a journalist. Akhilesh Tripathi who defeated the three times Congress MLA Kanwar Karan Singh, is just a civil service aspirant. Delhi Health Minister and four-time MLA A.K. Walia has been defeated by our candidate Vinod Kumar Binni, who is a councillor.”

Added to the list is Education Minister Kiran Walia who was defeated by AAP candidate and lawyer Somnath Bharti. Guinness World Record holder and Congress MLA from Ambedkar Nagar Chaudhary Prem Singh was defeated by a local activist Ashok Kumar.

The AAP won not only in the lower middle and working classes constituencies like Seemapuri, Laxmi Nagar and Mangolpuri but it was also victorious in posh Greater Kailash, where its candidate Saurav Bhardwaj, who is an engineer by profession, defeated Ajay Malhotra, son of senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Due to the performance of the Kejriwal-led party which has emerged as the second largest party several prominent Congress leaders were relegated to the third position including Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri in Mehrauli, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee’s campaign committee chairman and three time MLA Subhash Chopra in Kalkaji, Prof. Walia in Malviya Nagar and the former Speaker and four-time MLA Chaudhary Prem Singh in the reserved constituency of Ambedkar Nagar.