Win It Like AAP: Kejriwal-Led Party Maintains 'Record' Of Winning Elections With Huge Mandate
Punjab Polls 2022: This will be the AAP's first electoral victory outside Delhi. However, what has grabbed eyeballs is the party's victory margins in the elections it has contested so far.
New Delhi: The AAP's knack for winning elections with huge mandates was on show again, with the party securing a landslide victory in Punjab, and thus cementing its place as a strong alternative political force in the national arena.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stormed to power in Punjab, winning 92, according to poll results declared by the Election Commission for the polls for 117 assembly seats.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said "revolution" first happened in Delhi, then in Punjab and will now happen all over the country, signalling his national ambitions.
This is AAP's first electoral victory outside Delhi since the party's formation nearly nine years ago. However, what has grabbed eyeballs is the party's victory margins in the elections it has contested so far.
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In the 2020 Delhi Assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a landslide victory despite facing anti-incumbency. The party won 62 seats in the 70-member assembly while BJP settled on eight seats, and Congress, which had ruled Delhi for 15 years, drew a blank.
In the 2015 polls too, the AAP, which had burst on to the political scene only two years ago, won a record 67 seats — a feat rarely achieved in any state in the past.
In 2020, the AAP's vote share stood at 53.58 per cent, marginally less compared to 54.3 per cent in 2015. The huge mandate in Punjab shows that AAP's vote base has only grown wider from 2017 and its appeal cuts across more sections.
So, What Worked For The AAP In Punjab?
Issues raised by the party during campaigning — rising unemployment, deteriorating healthcare infrastructure, education, and other civic issues — seem to have resonated with voters on ground.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's famed 'Delhi model of governance' also seems to have wooed the voters in Punjab, a state plagued by drug menace and mafia raj.
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"Punjab has given a chance to Kejriwal's model of governance. Today, his model of governance has been established at the national level. This is the victory of the 'Aam Aadmi' (common man)," ANI quoted AAP leader Manish Sisodia as saying.
The declaration of former comedian Bhagwant Mann as its chief ministerial face also proved to be a masterstroke at a time when Congress was beset with infighting and the BJP facing the ire of farmers over the controversial agricultural reform laws, which was later withdrawn.
Moreover, the traditional Punjab parties like SAD and Congress seem to have failed to gauge the silent mood in favour of a change.
During campaigning, the AAP positioned itself as an agent of change, with Kejriwal and Mann encouraging people to vote for "badlav". This was a major change from the 2017 elections, where AAP's major focus was on the Sikh vote bank.
In fact, the seeds of AAP's victory in Punjab were already sown ahead of the assembly election when it won 14 of the 35 municipal wards in Chandigarh, a city administered by the Centre, last year in November. Since then, the party seems to have ticked all the right boxes in Punjab.
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