‘Voice of people is voice of God…’: Navjot Sidhu on Punjab poll results

Congress's Navjot Singh Sidhu may not have thought last year - when he won a few battles amid the infighting in his party - that he would be congratulating the rival AAP for a poll win. On Thursday, as votes were counted, and the AAP neared the 100-mark in the 117-member assembly, Sidhu 'humbly' accepted the people's mandate. In his tweet, the 58-year-old leader wrote: "The voice of the people is the voice of God …. Humbly accept the mandate of the people of Punjab …. Congratulations to Aap !!! (sic)"

The Congress had weathered many storms in Punjab in the months before polls. Navjot Singh Sidhu, before he was elected as the Punjab Congress chief, had been vocal in his criticism against Amarinder Singh who eventually stepped down from the chief minister's post in September. Charanjit Singh Channi was chosen as the Punjab's first Dalit chief minister. There was a brief spell of tensions between Sidhu and Channi too over the higly sensitive sacrilege case among others.

In the months that followed, the party high command was able to put up a united front. Flanked by Channi and Sidhul, Rahul Gandhi had declared that Channi would be the CM face. After months of high drama, however, the Congress has lost its ground in the state. It is projected to win less than 17 seats in a huge debacle. The party's relentless attacks on AAP's CM candidate Bhagwant Mann also did not help.

Meanwhile, Arivnd Kejriwal has thanked Punjab for the ‘inquilab’ (revolution) as his party makes inroads in another state after Delhi. He tweeted a photo with Bhagwant Mann and wrote in Hindi. “Is Inquilab ke liye bahut bahut badhai. Thanks a lot for this revolution.”