The word ‘Aam Aadmi’ means common man and the phenomena associated with the name primarily calls for facilitating the life of members of the public by making the democratic processes accessible to them.

Propagating eradication of corruption of all sorts, the Aam Aadmi Party is no vigilante group; it has a manifesto which clearly begins with a single word rule of ‘swaraj’, meaning rule of the people.

The origins of the AAP and Jan Lokpal Bill which came to be its campaign slogan can be traced back to the 2011 campaign of India Against Corruption (IAC), a movement that had demanded strong anti-corruption laws and had called for the setting up of a monitoring body to keep a check and probe suspected corruption.

The party came into the limelight in the latter half of 2012, with former civil servant Arvind Kejriwal and core supporter of the IAC campaign as its chief. The party rose on to win the state government of Delhi with Kejriwal becoming chief minister in Dec 2013, a post from which he resigned over the Jan Lokpal bill.

The party managed to attract much attention in its early days but the fascination associated with the AAP still persists within India as well as among other observers. The party’s manifesto focuses primarily around corrections of ills within the Indian social and political spheres and calls for solutions to corrupt practices, decentralisation of power and bringing the members of the public at the helm of national political affairs. And much in line with the AAP’s public-friendly, anti-corruption ethos, its political and election symbol is the broom.

Not only that, the party has also brought gender associated issues to the fore by maintaining that after coming to power, the AAP’s elected representatives would work tirelessly to eliminate the factors that have tangled the lives of Indian women in a web of insecurity and ensure speedy justice. Cheaper electricity and water bills are also a priority of the party in order to make the public’s life easier; this comes along with reforming the police force by rendering it more efficient.

Moreover, the party’s economic policy calls for rooting out corruption, ensure accountability on part of institutions and work towards a globally competitive, business-friendly financial model.

Political analysts observe that the AAP has extensively streamlined local issues due to their constituency-based agendas and there seems to be a dearth of incentives for a broader or national agenda — apart from doing away with corruption — as the party is fighting to make gains in the ongoing election. However, another way of looking at the party’s aims is that it brings forth an agenda incorporating solutions for poverty, sanitation problems, illiteracy and education – issues that plague ordinary Indians.

— Research and text by Nida Mujahid Hussain