India's anti-corruption party tested in Delhi polls

Aam Aadmi Party, led by former tax inspector Arvind Kejriwal, is contesting New Delhi state election.

NEW DELHI: A new Indian political party rooted in an anti-corruption movement that swept the country in 2011 faced its first electoral test Wednesday as voters in New Delhi headed to the ballot box.

The Aam Aadmi Party, led by former tax inspector Arvind Kejriwal, is contesting the New Delhi state election and hoping for a victory that would be a political earthquake ahead of national polls next year.

New Delhi, whose 16.8 million inhabitants elect their own assembly, has been run by the Congress party since 1998 but it is seen as struggling with voter fatigue, inflation, and anger over crime against women and corruption.

Kejriwal cast his vote at a polling station in central Delhi early on Wednesday accompanied by about 100 supporters wearing white Gandhi caps which, along with a broom, has become the party's trademark.

"Broom! Broom! Broom!," said street food vendor Rajesh Sharma, 49, after casting his vote in the chaotic old city area. "Kejriwal deserves a chance to show what he's got."

The Delhi election, along with four other state polls over the last month, is also crucial for the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its newly chosen hardline leader Narendra Modi.

Modi, a prime ministerial candidate for next year's general elections, has campaigned hard and will hope to see the BJP make gains when results are announced for all five state elections on Sunday.

NDTV report quoted BJP chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan as saying that his party is ahead of both the Congress and AAP.

"BJP is far ahead of the Congress and the AAP. It is the Congress and the AAP who are contesting for the second position. Nobody can make a dent in our vote bank," Harsh Vardhan told reporters.

Kejriwal, 44, believes his promise of clean politics, young candidates and pursuit of black marketeers who he blames for soaring food prices will see his party surge to victory.

"I believe that the people will vote against a corrupt establishment this time," he told reporters on Wednesday.

He formed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) less than a year ago after a split from his one-time partner Anna Hazare, an elderly activist with whom he launched a nationwide protest movement in 2011 demanding a new anti-corruption law.

A survey on perceptions of corruption published on Tuesday by Transparency International showed India ranked at number 94 out of 177 countries.

Support for the AAP as detected by India's often unreliable pollsters fluctuates wildly, from an impressive six to eight seats in the 70-member assembly to an extraordinary 30 or more.

"This election will test the substance of a new force, the Aam Aadmi party, which despite lacking a seasoned organisation has expertly created a buzz about its presence," The Indian Express said in an editorial Wednesday.

In the general elections next year, the left-leaning Congress is predicted to struggle to win a third term in power, with Modi and the BJP making headway but without enough support to win a majority.

"Consistently we have worked for development of Delhi, inclusive development, not only social development but also infrastructure," Sheila Dikshit, India's longest serving chief minister, told reporters Wednesday.

"Lots of work that we have done people try to blow it away in the wind of corruption. This is not true."

Dikshit was criticised for her handling of the Delhi Commonwealth Games and related infrastructure projects in 2010 which were late, often badly built and riddled with corruption, according to auditors.

She has also been under pressure to improve safety in the capital after the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus last December which brought simmering anger about widespread sex crime in India to the boil.