Heralding a change in the state as well as the national politics, voters in Punjab voted Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to a landslide victory with 92 seats in 117-member Assembly.
AAP, a relatively new player in state politics, pushed traditional parties – the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – to the brink with good performance across the state.
While the Congress was reduced to 18 seats (from 77 in 2017 Assembly polls), the SAD was reduced to just three seats and BJP’s high ambitions post alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress were dashed as the party could win only two seats. SAD’s alliance partner, Bahujan Samaj Party and an independent candidate won one seat each while other parties failed to open their account.
The tsunami in favour of the AAP can be gauged from the fact the stalwarts of the state politics, including current and former chief ministers, bit the dust in the electoral battle to little known AAP candidates.
The incumbent CM, Charanjit Singh Channi, lost both the Assembly seats, Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur. Channi’s predecessor Captain Amarinder Singh also faced a humiliating defeat.
Five-time former CM Parkash Singh Badal suffered defeat in Lambi constituency by a margin of 11,396 votes. Former Congress CM, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal lost the poll from Lehra constituency.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal also lost the Assembly poll from Jalalabad constituency to AAP candidate. In Amritsar East constituency, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and SAD’s Bikram Majithia also lost the poll to AAP’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur. Most ministers in the Congress government also joined the loser candidates list.
With voters choosing AAP as the new alternative for a change in Punjab, the party’s vote share jumped to 42 per cent as compared to 23.7 votes in 2017 Assembly polls when the party won 20 seats.
The Congress’ vote share dropped to 23.3 per cent as compared to 38.5 per cent votes polled by the party in 2017 Assembly polls when it won 77 of 117 seats.
The SAD suffered a further slide in its vote share with the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led party garnering 17.73 per cent votes as compared to 25.2 per cent votes in 2017 Assembly polls.
As victory in Punjab, a first outside Delhi opens doors for the party’s increased role in national politics as an alternative to the Congress, AAP’s national convener Kejriwal described it as an Inqalab ( revolution).
AAP Punjab in-charge Raghav Chadha said now AAP is ready to replace the Congress at the national level.
AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann singled out unemployment in Punjab as his biggest concern and said his first decision as CM will be to bring an end to unemployment in the state and will bring governance to people’s doorstep.