Hopes of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of emerging as a viable political option in Punjab and gradually expanding its base across the country were dashed to the ground on Monday after the electorate in the State gave a clear-cut mandate against two of its candidates.
Its candidates — Harjeet Singh Adaltiwala from Patiala (urban) segment, and Baljinder Kaur from Talwandi Sabo constituency — were not only defeated in the by-polls but also lost their security deposits.
While Adatiwala bagged 5,700 votes against former Union Minister and three-time Congress MP from Patiala Preneet Kaur and Shiromani Akali Dal’s Bhagwan Dass Juneja in Patiala; Baljinder received 13,899 votes against four-time local MlA SAD’s Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, and two-time local MlA Congress’ Harminder Singh Jassi in Talwandi Sabo.
Punjab is the only State in the entire country from where four of its candidates emerged victorious during the recently-concluded parliamentary polls, as it drew a blank in other states, including Delhi.
The party was trying frantically not just to project itself as the people’s choice in the State, but as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP along with its allies.
AAP’s defeat is being seen as the last nail in the party’s coffin, as its performance in elections has gone down drastically since its initial victory in Delhi.
After sending alarm bells ringing in the camps of both SAD-BJP combine and the Congress, the party even failed to put up a fight to the main contenders. The bypolls turned out to be a clear contest between the traditional rivals — SAD-BJP and Congress.
The pitiable performance of the AAP can be attributed to party’s failure to create an impact in Punjab in post-lok Sabha results scenario. As the party was marred by factionalism, it could not project any leader as its face for Punjab.
Political analysts believed that after taking advantage of the prevailing anti-incumbency factor against both the ruling alliance in the state and Congress at the national level, AAP managed to bag 24.5 per cent share of votes in lok Sabha polls coming up as an alternative to the Congress and SAD-BJP — the momentum it failed to sustain.
Seeing the party’s current state of affairs, the electors in Punjab that voted for the AAP seemed to have disenchanted — shrouded AAP’s political future in the State under a thick blanket of obscurity.
In lok Sabha polls, AAP emerged out to as the second largest party, in terms of seat share, in the State by bagging one-forth share of votes sending Punjab’s traditional political formation —rural vote bank lies with Akalis and urban with BJP or Congress —for a toss.
Bagging a fair portion of votes, AAP’s emergence resulted in a sharp decline in the vote share of Congress from around 42 percent in 2009 lok Sabha polls to 33 percent, and that of SAD-BJP combine to 35 per cent this time from previous figure of approximately 40 per cent.
AAP has already made it clear that it would concentrate on Punjab and Delhi only, as of now. Even as the party had announced to venture into Haryana political scene after its successful run during Delhi assembly polls, it decided to opt out after party’s hopeless show during lok Sabha elections.
In its State executive meeting a day before, the party decided to work down from the booth level to strengthen party for State Assembly polls, still two-and-a half-year away.
It is believed that AAP’s decision on selecting the candidates for the two bypolls have also cost it dear. As an Akali-turned-AAP member Adaltiwala failed to click with the voters, a college lecturer Baljinder could not strike the right cord with the people.
AAP’s success in the lok Sabha polls was credited to the party’s choice of candidates. It had fielded known and renowned faces from the region including comedian Bhagwant Mann, cardiologist Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, renowned scholar and professor Prof Sadhu Singh, former Indian diplomat Harinder Singh Khalsa — party’s all four MPs.
Besides, it selected senior advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka, Chandigarh-baseed lawyer Himmat Singh Shergill, eye surgeon Dr Daljit Singh, Punjabi singer Jasraj Singh longia, among others.
Just three months after the party's candidate Dr Dharamvira Gandhi won Patiala lok Sabha seat by over 20,000 votes stunning sitting MP and Union Minister Preneet Kaur and the SAD’s Deepinder Singh Dhillon, the voters completely rejected the AAP’s candidate.
AAP polled 34,000 votes from Patiala urban assembly segment in 2014 polls. Things are no different in Talwandi Sabo. AAP’s candidate Jasraj Singh longia got 15,557 votes in 2014 elections, while its Assembly bypoll candidate could bag nearly 14,000 votes.
The presence of AAP rebel Balkar Singh is said to have harmed party’s prospects to some extent in the constituency. AAP had earlier named Sidhu as its candidate but changed him soon after finding allegations of human trafficking against him. Sidhu contested by-poll as an independent, and could get on 6305 votes — losing his security deposit.
