ARVIND KEJRIWAL: THE DAVID WHO TOOK DOWN POLITICAL GOLIATHS.

22,000 votes–that was the margin by which Arvind Kejriwal won over Sheila Dikshit. Those 22,000 votes–apart from the anyway thumping victory of the newly floated Aam Aadmi Party this assembly election–speak volumes of how the people of New Delhi are ready for a change. A change from the stagnant, rotting corruption of the Congress and the opportunistic BJP.

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While these parties realized yesterday, much to their chagrin, that they had underestimated the khadi-wearing, soft-spoken Kejriwal and his ‘jhaduwalas’, psephologists and political gurus agreed on one thing–the man has arrived. It is now only a matter of time before AAP is mobilized to be launched as a national party–and this band of broom-wielding idealists set out to sweep corruption from the rest of India.

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When Arvind Kejriwal set out to contest for the 2013 elections, he faced his fair share of brickbats. Accused of ideological differences with Anna Hazare, slapped with a notice from Income Tax department and at the 11th hour – faced with the sting operation on AAP members. However, he moved past them to go on to impact the Delhi poll results in a dramatic manner.

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Some random political commentary with an autowallah yesterday while he drove me to my destination drove home the influence of the AAP leader even deeper. The auto driver, after dissing Sheila Dikshit and the rest of the Congress, said, “Arvind Kejriwal is a good man–he would have done great things if he formed the government this time. Almost all of us auto drivers voted for the jhaduwalas.”

I nodded in agreement, realizing only then how many people have pinned their hopes on this one man and his party. The unswerving faith in his ideals, the hope for the end of the status quo – this is what Delhi stood for, if the poll results were any indication. For a new party to take away 40 per cent of the seats at the first go is a testimony of this. While AAP’s promise of getting the Jan Lokpal Bill passed on 29thDecember is now a pipedream, it does not seem unlikely anymore. Like Kiran Bedi said, what Kejriwal and his team now need to do is “to have patience, and consolidate – so as not to spread themselves too thin once they go on to become a national party.”

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Cornered and worried politicians like Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP – with who Arvind has already declined to ally with – have warned AAP to not be arrogant of their victory. Say what they might, it is only the emergence of the Gandhian party that checked what otherwise would have depicted the apathy of the Delhi voters via the ‘None Of The Above’ option.

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The others states – Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh – saw considerable NOTA votes, the highest being in the former. Meanwhile, Delhi saw the least NOTA votes – with just over 0.5 per cent of the total votes. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that AAP took away the rest of the protest votes in the capital.

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The road is long and difficult for Arvind Kejriwal and his troupe, especially with them vehemently opposed to the idea of coalitions and alliances. With just months away for the General Elections, they carry with them the weight of the hopes of millions of people. The assembly elections were all the affirmation that the jhaduwalas needed, but there is not resting on laurels – not yet. Like Robert Frost had said, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep.”