Common Man Party storms Indian capital, forms govt
December 28, 2013, 7:05 am

The party was formed out of a movement led by anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare through a series of hunger strikes and protests [AP Images]

The leader of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal who was a former tax official took oath as the youngest Chief Minister of Delhi. Kejriwal is a Ramon Magsaysay award winner for social work.

The Common Man’s party was formed out of a movement led by anti-corruption campaigner Anna Hazare through a series of hunger strikes and protests.

The party has secured “outside support” from the Congress party that leads the national coalition.

“This is just the beginning. We have a long fight ahead of us,” said Kejriwal after taking oath.

The Aam Aadmi Party made a dramatic debut at the local polls in Delhi after garnering massive support during an anti-graft movement born two years ago.

Reactions to the rise of the party have been varied.

“You have won the harder battle, now please don’t lose the easier one. Don’t resurrect the economics of Marx, Lenin and Stalin 20 years after the start of India’s economic reforms. Those economic models have brought unbridled suffering, shortages and economic anarchy and have long been abandoned across the world,” warned Indian bureaucrat Srivatsa Krishna.

“Matters little what you think of Kejriwal & AAP. But if you don’t think today is historic, you probably never believed in democracy anyway,” tweeted Indian journalist Shiv Aroor.

Security in the Indian capital was heightened as the members and supporters of the party took public transport to reach the venue of oath-taking, the Ramlila Grounds in New Delhi.

The leadership of the new party has indicated it would now prepare for the upcoming general elections due by May, 2014 and has promised to change the way electoral politics in India is played out.

TBP