On the face of it the Aam Aadmi Party’s selecting two virtual outsiders for the three Rajya Sabha seats it should bag shortly is quite a story particularly since founder-member Kumar Vishwas was ignored for a position he had made no secret of wanting to attain. The bigger story is that Arvind Kerjriwal had to settle for businessman Sushil Gupta and chartered accountant Narain Dass Gupta (in addition to party-activist Sanjay Singh) only because his overtures to more than a dozen eminent persons were spurned. When will Kejriwal come to accept that there are few takers for the larger-than-life image he projects of himself? It ought to be a sobering thought that persons who would otherwise have deemed a seat in the House of Elders a singular honour opted to stay aloof rather than touch AAP with the proverbial bargepole. Was it the supreme arrogance of Kejriwal that caused him to embarrass people like a former RBI governor and apex court judge by going public about offering them “tickets” to the Rajya Sabha without any pre-consultation? For there would be few who would accept the AAP-line that those eminent non-political persons declined the offer because they feared running foul of the government ~ there are limits to paranoia. There is little need to be exercised over poet-politician Kumar Vishwas not “making it”, nobody can claim a nomination by right. Yet there will be much resonance with Vishwas’ lament that his prospects were axed because he had aired his differences with Kerjriwal over several issues. The allegation that Kejriwal functions in dictatorial fashion has been levelled by many, a reflection of which is to be seen in his confrontations with successive Lieutenant-Governors, union ministers etc. The need to build a party “organisation”, or foster internal democracy, seems to elude the AAP leadership, a couple of persons call the shots, always.

In terms of time the AAP is still a fledgling, yet to write off all its convulsions as teething troubles would be to miss a point. In the short time it has been in business it has been disowned by its mentor Anna Hazare, and no longer enjoys the favour of those who had played prominent roles in its formation ~ Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi, Mayank Gandhi and a host of others whose dreams of new politics have gone up in flames like the effigy of Ravana at the Ramlila Ground. Simultaneously have AAPs electoral ambitions come a cropper in Goa and Gujarat, after partial success in Punjab. The election to the Delhi Assembly is looming on the horizon, Kejriwal and his chosen few must resurrect the spirit that brought the party into existence, and power. Are they capable of proving themselves more than short-term wonders, or just the irritating mosquitoes the Prime Minister had dubbed them?

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