The reverberations of Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) victory celebrations in the Delhi elections on Tuesday was felt in Punjab, with the party’s state unit receiving the much-needed boost to resurrect itself after virtually disintegrating into pieces following infighting.
The state’s principal opposition party even now, AAP in Punjab is now looking at setting its own house in order and to take on the Congress head-on. At the same time, the party is throwing its door open for those “misguided” leaders to return to the party fold.
But besides the much-need boost, the party needs much more than that. It needs to combat the power struggles, unabated infighting, splits, desertions disarrayed organizational structure, and empowering the local leadership.
Punjab is the only state after Delhi where AAP has managed to emerge as one of the major political force. However, after its unpredicted entry into Punjab politics with four Lok Sabha seats in 2014, the party has failed to keep up the momentum over all these years.
From four seats in 2014, the party has come down to just one in 2019 parliamentary polls. In assembly elections too, AAP could not live up to the expectations of the people. Positive to form the government, the party could win just 20 seats in 2017 elections, ending up as the main opposition party in 117-member House, with Congress emerging as the single largest party with 77 seats.
The only encouraging point is that the party had pushed the SAD-BJP combine, which had ruled Punjab for 10 years in a row, to the third spot with 15 seats for the Akali Dal and just three for the saffron party.
However, after that the party continued to disintegrate with little patience, facing defeat after defeats in by-elections. All its candidates, except the state party unit chief Bhagwant Mann, lost their security deposits.
“This is not the right way to look at it…It has to be seen in different dimensions. Everyone said that AAP came down from four to one, but AAP also rose from zero to 20 in 2017 elections, while SAD came down from 56 to just 15. BJP, which was 12 in 2012, came down to just three five years’ after,” argued AAP’s senior leader Aman Arora.
Arora, who is also Sunam MLA, maintained that the party’s win in Delhi is a “big advantage” for us in Punjab. “Under the guidance of Arvind Kejriwal, we would make a new beginning here and we will work more actively, raising people-centric and Punjab-specific issues, so that we can save Punjab in 2022,” he added.
It was after AAP’s 2015 Delhi win that the party received groundswell support in Punjab. Now with AAP’s another resounding victory in the national capital, the party’s somewhat dispirited cadre is expecting to be galvanized to secure a possible win in the next assembly election.
In fact, the Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar minced no words to underscore that a win in Delhi would mean that the people of Punjab may give “another chance” to AAP. “AAP has been rocked by dissensions and desertions for a long time and I have my doubts whether AAP leaders will be able to get their act together and make something of it,” Jakhar had said a day before.
Another senior AAP leader, requesting anonymity, maintained that the party has to “put its house in order first, and in fact, we need to start right now to make a mark in 2022”.
“Desertions and dissidence within has affected the party a lot, and we have seen that in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. We have to come together, stand united, to throw these traditional political parties, Congress, SAD and BJP, which are fooling people by playing fixed matches,” said the leader.
Arora said that there are some leaders who were misguided by others, and we would be happy to welcome them back. “Those leaders who are standing and agreeing with the principles of Arvind Kejriwal and that of AAP, those who take party’s and people’s interest first, are still under the same banner…Those who have been misguided by others…they will also understand that it is also better to stay within the party,” he added.
In a veiled message to the disgruntled and those who have left the party, Arora maintained that we are working under Kejriwal’s leadership, and “all the state’s specific decisions will be taken by the party’s Punjab unit as it is competent enough…I believe that now, many people will themselves come under the party’s umbrella soon”.
Political observers believed if AAP managed to plan its strategy right, the party could be a tough nut to crack in 2022 elections, especially at a time when the Congress Government is under attack from all sides for its failure to fulfill its pre-poll promises.
On the other hand, SAD is also passing through its worst political phase with former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal virtually hanging his boots, and the senior leaders deserting the sinking ship. BJP, at the same time, is struggling to maintain its hold.
Even as the SAD has all along been maintaining that the next state assembly polls would be a direct contest between Akali Dal and the Congress, it would not be right to sideline AAP as it could best fit in the political vacuum being created in Punjab. And all it needs is a better strategy.
“We need to start afresh…bring everyone together. Plan things accordingly…and keep raising people’s issues as this is what the AAP in Delhi has done. We will continue to raise people’s issues, Punjab’s issues just like we raised the issues of illegal mining, costly power and power agreements with private thermal plants,” said Arora.
He said that Delhi results have sent a message to the leaders of all parties that people will vote for development — be it education, water or electricity. “After Delhi, AAP is strong in Punjab. Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh has adopted the path of his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal but the people of Punjab want development and a positive environment in the State. AAP will form the next government in the state,” added Arora.
Party’s state political affairs committee member Harchand Singh Barsat said that AAP would replicate the Delhi model in Punjab in the 2022 assembly election. “AAP’s unprecedented victory has sent out a message loud and clear across the country that the elected governments would have to work harder to bettering education, health care, cheaper electricity, safety and security of women, et al,” he said.
Hailing the victory, the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Harpal Singh Cheema said that it was the victory of good over the evil forces. “The people of the country have rejected the politics of hatred peddled by the BJP and voted for the Kejriwal government’s development agenda,” he said.
Other than Delhi, AAP has experimented with electoral contests in assembly polls only in the states of Haryana and Punjab. In Haryana, AAP remained non-existential and drew a complete blank in the recently concluded assembly elections.
VICTORY CELEBRATIONS IN PUNJAB TOO
The victory slogans of AAP’s win in Delhi was heard loud and clear in Punjab too with the party workers and leaders celebrating the resounding successive victory in the national capital.
The party workers in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Hoshiarpur, Bathinda and other places were seen dancing to the dhol beats and distributing sweets.
As trends were showing AAP’s victory in Delhi, party workers gathered outside Bhagwant Mann’s Sangrur office and started raising slogans in favour of Arvind Kejriwal and the MP.
“We are celebrating the party’s victory by holding a march in the town. Now, the AAP will win in Punjab in 2022,” said Narinder Kaur Bharaj, an AAP youth leader.
AAP’s Doaba zone president Tarundeep Sunny said the unprecedented victory of the party in Delhi polls will transform the political scenario across the country.
The people of Delhi have for the third time reposed their faith in Kejriwal after witnessing good governance during a small stint of rule of only 49 days in 2013 which helped the party to come to power with a thumping majority winning 67 seats in the 70 member Delhi Vidhan Sabha in 2015.
This time the party not only struck a hat-trick, but returned to power again with the thumping majority winning 63 seats leaving only seven for the main rival BJP.
AAP hopeful of forming govt in Punjab in 2022: Mann
AAP’s star campaigner and Punjab unit president Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said that party’s victory in the Delhi assembly elections by a thumping margin was a historic day in Indian democracy and they are hopeful of forming government in Punjab in 2022.
“People of Delhi have voted for the Arvind Kejriwal model of governance. They accepted his development agenda and gave their mandate to AAP. Though the BJP tried to play divisive politics in the name of Hindus and Muslims, the voters rejected hate politics,” he said.
‘Cong was zero in 2015, and this time too’: PunjabMinister
Downplaying Congress’ repeat of 2015 humiliation in Delhi Assembly polls, Punjab Cabinet Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on Tuesday termed the election results as “BJP's defeat” in Delhi and not of the Congress.
Dharamsot, reacting on poll results, said that his party was not defeated in the Delhi election as its tally remained at zero like in 2015, and so it was the BJP’s loss.
“We were zero earlier, and this time too we are zero. So it's not our defeat. It's a defeat for the BJP,” he told the reporters referring to the election trends which gave the Congress no seat in the Delhi assembly election.
The Congress had not won even a single seat in the 2015 Assembly polls too.