Born out of the movement led by Anna Hazare for cleansing public life in the country, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal took up the initiative for providing the people of a dream alternative.

The party assumed power in Delhi after the assembly elections with the support of the Congress. The AAP government resigned within 49 days on the pretext that both the Congress and the BJP were not allowing it to function in the way it liked. AAP made several promises to the Delhi people, including scaling down the high water and electricity tariffs and others which the government could have down on its own without seeking the support of either the BJP or the Congress on the floor of the House. But Kejriwal resigned without fulfilling a single promise.

Instead he sought the support of the BJP and the Congress to introduce and pass the controversial Jan Lokpal and Swaraj Bills without going through the mandated legal and constitutional procedures. As both the Congress and the BJP did not agree, Kejriwal resigned and sought to invoke public sympathy.

After resigning from the chief ministership of Delhi, Kejriwal put up AAP candidates in several parts of the country in 2014 parliamentary polls. But his promise to provide a clean alternative to the country’s political system seems to be an eyewash.

A survey conducted by an independent think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has exposed the hollowness of Kejriwal’s tall claims. The ADR has analysed the affidavits filed by 8163 out of 8230 independent candidates and candidates of several political parties in the fray in 2014 parliamentary elections. About 15% of AAP candidates (65 in numbers) have criminal cases filed against them. Out of them 10% are battling in courts against serious criminal cases filed against them. AAP candidates are facing charges relating to murder, attempts to murder, crime against women, charges of creating communal disharmony, robbery and dacoity, kidnapping.

Some of the serious criminal charges, if proved, may amount to imprisonment up to five years or more. Some of the offences are non-bailable in nature. About 42 AAP candidates have confessed have serious criminal cases pending against them.

It seems that AAP has followed the path of other political parties by relying upon muscle power, instead of providing a clean alternative that it founder Kejriwal and his mentor Anna Hazare had promised time and again to the people.

In the race for use of money power in polls, AAP is not much behind. About 45% of AAP candidates (192 in numbers) are wealthy people called Crorepatis. About 115 (27%) out of 427 AAP candidates occupy the top three highest assets positions in their constituencies. To cite a few examples, AAP candidate from Bangalore central V Bala Krishnan has adeclared asset of Rs 1,89,42,53,519, AAP candidate from Mumbai South Meera Ashish Sanyal has declared asset of Rs 50,94,61,553, AAP candidate for Darbhanga Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, Prabhat Ranjan Das has a declared asset of Rs 36,46,42,463, AAP candidate from Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu R Chakravarthi Raja Gopala Krishnan has a declared asset of Rs 32,59,25,000 and AAP candidate from Ghaziabad in UP Shazia Ilmi Malik has a declared asset of Rs 30,33,42,609. According to ADR survey 109 AAP candidates have not filed their Income Tax Returns.

AAP has moved away from its declared concept of Aam Aadmi (common man) for whose interests it had pledged to fight against injustice. The party leaders live in luxury apartments and bunglows in posh colonies. They dress themselves in costly suits and attires and not in dhoti-kurta, the dress of the country’s common man – the real Aam Aadmi.

The party has enough funds to pay its full-time and part-time volunteers. Funds are flowing from foreign countries and AAP says that these funds are contributions from non-resident Indians (NRIs) abroad. The situation raises several eyebrows. Every year, on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the government had been making appeals to NRIs and Overseas Indians to investment in Indian economy, individually or by pooling in their resources. But the NRI investment in Indian economy had not been that encouraging, though their remittances to their family remained high. It is difficult to believe that NRIs who are shying to invest their hard earned money in Indian economy would fund a political party like AAP in a big way.

But AAP leaders have been careful in showing their poll expenses within the limits fixed by the Election Commission at Rs 14 lakhs. In the last 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, the average election expense declared by six ministers was Rs 8.07 lakh. AAP leader Girish Soni had shown highest election expense at Rs 12,53 lakh, followed by Rakhi Birla at Rs 11.65 lakh, Jarnail Singh at Rs 11.64 lakh, Harish Khanna at Rs 10.97 lakh, Jagdeep Singh at Rs 10.88 lakh, Sanjeev Jha at Rs 9.96 lakh. Arvind Kejriwal has shown a low poll expenditure at Rs 3.99 lakh followed by Ashok Kumar from Ambedkar Nagar constituency at Rs 3.78 lakh.

It is clear that AAP has moved away from its pledge to cleanse the Indian political system. It is very much in the race for both muscle and money power.