If the Congress is serious about finding out the reasons for its debacle in the recent assembly polls, all it will have to do is to ascertain the factors behind the Aam Admi Party's (AAP) spectacular debut.
The remarkable ascent of this greenhorn party recalls a similar performance by another newcomer to the election scene three decades ago - N.T. Rama Rao's Telugu Desam in Andhra Pradesh. Significantly, it was the Congress's missteps which led to its rise. But for Rajiv Gandhi's insulting behaviour towards the then Andhra Pradesh chief minister, T. Anjaiah, the Telugu Desam wouldn't have appeared at all.
It was to salvage the pride of the people of the state that the matinee idol of the time, NTR, decided to launch his party in 1982 and swept the Congress out of power in the following year.
The AAP's trajectory is similar, though not identical. It also decided to enter the electoral fray to oust not only the scam-tainted Congress but virtually all the established parties which, the AAP believes, are hand-in-glove behind the scenes to feather their own nests at the expense of the hapless population.
As is known, the AAP's roots lie in Anna Hazare's anti-corruption stir during the summer of 2011. After the agitation fizzled out, however, with a flop show in Mumbai in December of that year - Delhi was deemed too cold for continuing with the protests - one of Anna's lieutenants, Arvind Kejriwal, decided to enter the political field.
