Punjab was the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) only hope outside Delhi, but the party faltered in cashing on its good start in the state following AAP’s inner turmoil and failure to project its chief ministerial candidate.
Seeking change, Punjab voters gave four Lok Sabha seats to AAP in 2014 Lok Sabha polls despite the Modi-wave all over the country but the an over-confident party could not set its own house in order to cash on
the strong anti-incumbency wave against the Parkash Singh Badal government.
In the run up to February 4 elections, AAP suffered setbacks in the form of exit of several key leaders including former state chief Sucha Singh Chhotepur.
With the outgoing AAP leaders alleging corruption and ruing the control of outsiders over party’s affairs in the state, it created a confusion in the voter’s which helped the Congress in consolidating its position as main alternative to the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bhartiya Janta Party (SAD-BJP) combine.
The fact the party failed to name its CM candidate also added to this confusion as both the Congress and SAD-BJP had declared the CM candidates, Capt Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal respectively.