Assembly results a dampener for AAP, opposition parties sharpen attack

Chandigarh

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann and several of his ministers, gung-ho after their scintillating showing in Punjab eight months ago, went all out to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in Gujarat like it was their backyard.

Mann, who spearheaded the AAP’s assembly campaign with the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, spent much of his time in Gujarat in the past two months, holding dozens of rallies and roadshows. The ministers and legislators also took frequent sorties, and government decisions on the old pension scheme and the regularisation of services of contractual employees got fast-tracked to showcase the “Kejriwal model” there. They all exuded confidence about the party’s chances of trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s turf, claiming that winds of change are blowing.

But the AAP’s lacklustre performance in Gujarat and neighbouring Himachal Pradesh in Thursday’s results is being seen as a dampener for the party in Punjab, despite its victory in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections a day ago where it dislodged the BJP, which was at the helm for last 15 years. In Gujarat, it could not dent the BJP and polled 13% votes with five of the 182 seats.

The party’s campaign did not take off in Himachal, where it failed to open its account and got just 1.1% votes. A consolation for the AAP, which is in power in Delhi and Punjab, though is that the performance in Gujarat has earned it the “national party” status as it needed only 6% votes and two seats.

Jagroop Singh Sekhon, former head of the political science department, Guru Nanak Dev University, said the AAP can now call itself a national party but its election strategy and result in Gujarat are a setback for the state unit in Punjab. “They had earned goodwill here, but the Hindutva card played by Kejriwal has not gone down well with people. Then, the way their leaders from Punjab remained occupied with the Gujarat elections also did not send a good message,” he said.

Rivals get ammunition

The election results have also provided ammunition to the opposition parties, which were targeting Mann and his ministers for “abandoning” the state for campaigning in Gujarat. They have sharpened their attacks.

BJP national executive member Sunil Jakhar said that the AAP’s bubble has burst as it talked of change and a sizable vote share. They may try to sell their win in the MCD polls by saying that where people have seen our work, they have voted for us, but how would they explain their rout in Himachal which borders Punjab? he asked.

Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said that the AAP failed to sell Delhi and Punjab models of governance in Gujarat and Himachal as people refused to be misled by their leaders’ false propaganda and promises of freebies. “It is, therefore, time for Mann to focus his entire energy and skills to resolve the long pending issues of Punjab,” said Bajwa, who was one of the party’s senior observers for Himachal polls.

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP and the BJP of playing a “fixed match” in Gujarat. “People have seen through their lies and fake propaganda which came at the cost of Punjab exchequer,” he claimed.

A natural national alternative: AAP

The AAP, however, sees the election results differently, terming the national party status in 10 years, performance in Gujarat, and the MCD win as big achievements. “What a magnificent political sojourn. Within just 10 years, the AAP has won Delhi and Punjab with a huge mandate. With its maiden foray into Gujarat, more than 37 lakh votes in its kitty, AAP has not only become a recognised national party but also a natural national alternative (sic),” AAP’s Punjab chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang posted on Twitter. He also hit back at Warring over the “fixed match” charge, asking him what the Congress was doing in Gujarat all these years when the BJP kept winning one election after the other in the past three decades.