Wiped clean from the political scene in the rest of the country, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made an impressive debut in Punjab by emerging as the second largest party in the State with four out of 13 seats despite Modi wave sweeping the country.
Attribute it to anti-incumbency against the Congress at the Centre and the ruling SAD-BJP combine in the State, or manifestation of the voters’ anger against individual leaders of both the parties, the fact remains that AAP’s broom succeeded in striking roots in Punjab.Making inroads in the Sate’s political scene even as the BJP and its allies swept the neighbouring Sates of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, AAP will have four of its leaders representing the party in the Parliament from Punjab.
Even as party’s candidates at over 400 seats across the nation failed to find mandate of the people, the Aam Aadmi Party has emerged as “khaas” (special) in Punjab with all the four success stories from the Sate it can take forward from the 2014 lok Sabha elections.Political analysts believed that the party has managed to take advantage of the anti-incumbency factors working against both the main political parties of the Sate — SAD-BJP combine and the Congress —getting over 24 per cent of the Sate’s vote share.
They maintained the electors, who have exercised their franchise in favour of the AAP, neither wanted to vote for the BJP nor the Congress in the Sate, to which AAP emerged out to be the credible alternative.Apart from that, the political pundits have also attributed AAP’s success in the State for strategically selecting the known faces of that particular region, and people who attracted votes cutting across the party lines.
Comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann has emerged as the winner with the highest margin in the Sate — more than two lakh votes —defeating SAD stalwart Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, and Congress’ sitting MP Vijay Inder Singla. Party’s Patiala candidate and cardiologist Dr Dharam Vira Gandhi stunned the Union Minister by defeating Preneet Kaur in her citadel by 20,942 votes. As the political observers were anticipating close contest between Preneet and SAD’s Deepinder Singh Dhillon, who was once Preneet’s close aide, Dr Gandhi surprised everyone.
AAP candidate from Faridkot constituency Sadhu Singh, a renowned scholar and professor, has won by a massive margin of 1.72 lakh votes by defeating sitting SAD MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan. Its Fatehgarh Sahib candidate Harjinder Singh Khalsa, a former Indian diplomat who resigned after Operation Bluestar, defeated Congress’ MlA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot by 54,144 votes.
AAP finished as runner up in ludhiana with senior advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka bagging more than 2.80 lakh votes, falling short to Congress’ Ravneet Singh Bittu who got more than three lakh votes.
The party finished at the third spot in the remaining seat with Himmat Singh Shergill getting over three lakh votes in Sri Anandpur Sahib, Satnam Paul Kamboj in Ferozepur bagging more than one lakh votes, Yamini Gomar in Hoshiarpur getting more than two lakh votes, Dr Daljit Singh in Amritsar bagging nearly one lakh votes, Bathinda candidate Jasraj Singh longia securing nearly 90,000 votes, Gurdaspur candidate Sucha Singh Chhotepur bagging over 1.70 lakh votes, Jyoti Mann getting more than 2.50 lakh votes in Jalandhar, and Baldeep Singh getting 1.44 lakh votes in Khadoor Sahib.