 "Punjab: AAP's second breakthrough")
Punjab has seen the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) come of age in the Lok Sabha elections. In that state, the party secured four seats. This was, however, also its national tally.
In Punjab, the party capitalised on the anti-incumbency against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, part of the National Democratic Alliance. The AAP’s candidate from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, won the seat with the highest margin (about 200,000 votes) among all the 13 constituencies in the state. The party also won in the Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala constituencies.
Across the country, none of the AAP’s senior leaders was able to win. The party’s political affairs committee member and candidate from Gurgaon, Yogendra Yadav, and its Amethi candidate, Kumar Vishwas, stood fourth in their respective constituencies. The party also lost in Varanasi, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Narendra Modi. While Kejriwal lost to Modi by about 300,000 votes, Vishwas managed to secure only 25,000 voters.
At an all-India level, the AAP garnered two per cent of the vote share, with a vote base of 11.2 million. In Delhi, the party’s vote share stood at 33 per cent, while in Punjab, it was 24 per cent.
Conceding defeat, Yadav said, “The (Lok Sabha election) results have not been up to our expectations. This election was primarily focused around the central government and the AAP did not appear to be a viable contender. We left the Delhi government in haste; we want to learn from our experience for the coming elections.”
Last year, the AAP had seen a spectacular debut in the Delhi Assembly elections, securing 29 per cent of the vote share and winning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats. The party had been in power here for 49 days, with the outside support of the Congress. However, after it failed to pass the much-promised Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill in the Assembly, it quit.
In Punjab, the party capitalised on the anti-incumbency against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, part of the National Democratic Alliance. The AAP’s candidate from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, won the seat with the highest margin (about 200,000 votes) among all the 13 constituencies in the state. The party also won in the Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala constituencies.
Across the country, none of the AAP’s senior leaders was able to win. The party’s political affairs committee member and candidate from Gurgaon, Yogendra Yadav, and its Amethi candidate, Kumar Vishwas, stood fourth in their respective constituencies. The party also lost in Varanasi, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Narendra Modi. While Kejriwal lost to Modi by about 300,000 votes, Vishwas managed to secure only 25,000 voters.
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In Delhi, where the AAP had originated, the party was second to the BJP in all the constituencies (in the 2009 elections, the Congress had won all the seats here).
At an all-India level, the AAP garnered two per cent of the vote share, with a vote base of 11.2 million. In Delhi, the party’s vote share stood at 33 per cent, while in Punjab, it was 24 per cent.
Conceding defeat, Yadav said, “The (Lok Sabha election) results have not been up to our expectations. This election was primarily focused around the central government and the AAP did not appear to be a viable contender. We left the Delhi government in haste; we want to learn from our experience for the coming elections.”
Last year, the AAP had seen a spectacular debut in the Delhi Assembly elections, securing 29 per cent of the vote share and winning 28 of the 70 Assembly seats. The party had been in power here for 49 days, with the outside support of the Congress. However, after it failed to pass the much-promised Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill in the Assembly, it quit.