Public trust is a big issue for
any political party today. With rising levels of awareness, the barometer of
public trust has become very complex. Amidst fluctuating ups and downs, it is
very difficult to sustain public trust for any political party for a long time.
With AAP’s spectacular victory in Delhi elections, public trust has never been
so significant than ever before. Has AAP been able to win public trust? What
about other parties? Has AAP’s decision to form the government in Delhi based
on public opinion has strengthened public trust?
Public today can not be made
fools by any political party today. While a political party may be sure of the
trust of the trust level of people who will vote for them, the public have
other notions. They are in look out for those who are different from the rest
in their claims for good governance. AAP has been vociferously advocating for
transparency, honesty and rooting out corruption from the top to the bottom. AAP’s
trust-enforcing mechanisms got a boost due to lack of innovative political
ideas by other parties, who kept on toeing the old line. A smart social media
strategy tilted the scales of public trust in AAP’s favour. At a time when
leadership crisis is well evident in the political arena, Arvind Kejriwal’s clean
image and inspiring leadership were the other crucial factors in building up
favourable public trust for AAP. AAP’s ability to win the hearts of the youth was also an effective public trust winning ploy.
BJP and Congress having lost public trust in Delhi
elections, decided to give unconditional
support to AAP to form government in Delhi. At one time before the elections, they
had dismissed AAP, and ridiculed AAP’s claims for an outright victory. The
public trust could not be enforced due
to the fluctuating stance of both the parties, as people could see definite
ulterior moves in both these parties..
They took the plea that people of Delhi want government formation, and
AAP should not shirk from its responsibility. Feeling cornered, AAP presented
18 points demands to Congress and BJP to make their stand clear on various
issues, which both the parties condemned. The public trust appeared to have got
a big jolt amidst compulsive politicking by the parties on the issue of
government formation.
Recently, when AAP decided to go
for public referendum by conducting public opinion polls on whether they should
form government in Delhi, it appeared that this was a timely step in winning public
trust. The aam aadmi connection has been well utilised by AAP to win public
trust. The move to go for public opinion polls has been a democratic step taken
by the party to clear the scene of political uncertainty in Delhi, and put an
end to dirty political alliances sprouting up. The majority of the public
opinions appears to indicate that the people want AAP government formation in
Delhi. In all likelihood, it appears that AAP will form government in Delhi
with unconditional support of Congress. Now, performance of AAP in the
government will be a key factor in reposing the trust imposed by the people in
them. The Congress and BJP will have to deeply introspect about their
weaknesses due to which they could not win public trust. Connecting deeply with
the people so as to
win their public trust instead of taking them for granted, seems to be a big lesson
for both these parties from the Delhi elections.
