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A day after the results of the civic polls were announced which were a mixed bag for the party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday stated that the results of the municipal elections reaffirm the trust that urban voters have shown in the Aam Aadmi Party, just as they did in the by-elections.

In the results announced, AAP  outrightly won in only one of the five municipal corporations, in Patiala, while emerging as the single largest party in Jalandhar and Ludhiana.

 AAP also could not get a majority in the municipal council in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home turf – has also come as a worrying sign for it. The wives of two sitting AAP MLAs also lost the polls in Ludhiana.

In Ludhiana, which saw polls for 95 wards, the AAP won 41 seats while the Congress finished second with 30. The BJP and the SAD won 19 and two seats, respectively, with three Independents also winning the polls.  In Amritsar, the Congress emerged as the single largest party, winning 43 of the 85 seats while the AAP, BJP and SAD won 24, nine and four seats respectively.

Phagwara saw a hung verdict with the Congress, which had a pre-poll alliance with the BSP, emerging as the single largest party with 22 of the 50 seats with the BSP getting three. The AAP, BJP, SAD and Independents won 12, four, three and six wards respectively.

Jalandhar saw the AAP fall short of majority as it won only 39 of the 85 seats while the Congress came in second with 34 seats. The BJP, BSP and Independents won 19, one and two seats respectively.

Punjab AAP President Aman Arora, along with AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang and party leaders Sunny Ahluwalia and Ferry Sofat, addressed a press conference at the party office in Chandigarh on Sunday to thank the public and congratulate all the victorious candidates.

Arora declared that the Aam Aadmi Party is now officially the No. 1 party in Punjab's urban areas. He said the illusion that the BJP and Congress are the strongest parties in urban areas has been shattered. In this election, AAP won more than 55% of the seats. Together, Akali-BJP and Congress couldn't even secure 45%. Arora mentioned that out of 977 wards, the results of 961 wards were declared. Of these, AAP candidates won in 522 wards. Meanwhile, Congress managed to win only 20% of the seats, securing 191 wards.

The BJP and Akali Dal faced a crushing defeat in this election. BJP won merely 7 percent of the seats, with 69 of its candidates emerging victorious. Similarly, Akali Dal managed to win only 3 percent of the seats, with just 31 of its candidates securing victory. BSP had 5 winners and could secure victory in only 0.5 percent of the seats. The number of independent candidates who won stood at 143, and their victory percentage was approximately 15 percent.

 Urban voters have shown a mirror to the BJP, rejecting its anti-Punjab stance. Arora added that in many wards, the Akali Dal and BJP struggled to even find candidates to contest, while Congress too faced difficulties in fielding candidates. AAP was the only party that fielded candidates under its election symbol in every ward.

Expressing happiness over the results, Arora said that AAP achieved a landslide victory in the Patiala Municipal Corporation. In Jalandhar and Ludhiana, AAP fell just two to four seats short of a majority, and the party is confident of having its mayor in these cities as well.

 Arora said that for the first time in decades, municipal elections in Punjab were held in a completely free and transparent manner. The victory of a large number of independent candidates is proof of this. He cited the example of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home constituency, Sangrur, where 10 independent candidates emerged victorious. Similarly, in Barnala’s Handiaya Municipal Council, a Congress candidate won by just one vote. He said that Barnala is the constituency of AAP’s Meet Hayer, who has been an MLA and minister and is currently the area’s MP. If Hayer wanted to manipulate the results, the Congress candidate would not have won by just one vote.

Arora said these incidents prove that the elections were conducted freely and fairly, without any interference from the state government. He contrasted this with the large-scale rigging and manipulation that occurred during the Congress and Akali-BJP governments. During their rule, opposition parties couldn’t even imagine winning municipal elections. This fairness has been made possible under the AAP government.