AAP wins Punjab emphatically, Congress tastes defeat

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) romped home to a massive victory in Punjab decimating all mainstream parties in what is seen as a decisive mandate for change in the border state. Kejriwal's AAP won 92 of the 117 assembly seats with a resounding vote share of over 42 per cent.

The party performed extraordinarily across all three regions of Punjab — Malwa, Majha and Doaba — while it saw a clean sweep in the electorally significant Malwa where its candidates won 62 of the 69 seats. Political stalwarts from across party lines including Capt Amarinder Singh, Congress state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, outgoing CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Sukhbir Singh Badal, Parkash Singh Badal and Bikram Majithia lost the election.

Comic satirist turned politician and AAP state president Bhagwant Mann (48), a Jat Sikh, will be sworn in as the next chief minister of Punjab. “Punjab waalo tussi kamaal kar ditta”, we all love you, Punjab. The results are a massive ‘inquilaab’, big seats have been shaken up,” AAP national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.

Yearning for a change was palpable in the state ahead of the polls with the electorate seeing AAP as a strong alternative to the Congress, SAD, BJP and other parties. The electorate was fed up with false and unfulfilled promises. The spiraling drug menace, unemployment, and the unaddressed emotive issue of sacrilege had hurt the psyche of people who offered AAP a chance to square the circle. AAP managed to clinch a sizable vote share of the dominant Jat Sikh and Dalit votes from the Congress and the Akali Dal.

The farmer’s party SSM led by Balbir Singh Rajewal that was carved out after the triumph of farmer unions over the three farm laws failed to win even one seat. Rajewal tasted dust managing a meager 3.5 per cent vote share in Samrala from where he unsuccessfully contested. AAP and the Congress benefited from the votes of farmers. Punjab debunked what Congress and other parties did in their attempt to polarise on caste lines.

The ruling Congress did all it could to get defeated; from its massive internal wrangling to changing its chief minister to polarisation on caste lines, Congress got its plot all wrong. Its poll strategy went haywire, reducing the party from 77 seats in 2017 to just 18 seats and a dismal vote share of 23 per cent in 2022. The party's Dalit card failed to create any impact. Channi lost both his seats, one against an AAP candidate who runs a mobile repair shop in a village.

The SAD-BSP combine is licking its wounds. The SAD won just 3 seats with a little over 18 per cent vote share, its worst-ever performance with its ally BSP bagging just one seat. The BJP, which managed 2 seats with a 6.6 per cent vote share, stares at a political hibernation with the Modi factor yet again failing to help the ascendance of the saffron party in Punjab.

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