With stunning debut, AAP breaks two-party dominance in Punjab

The Aam Aadmi Party may have been a bit frustrated at its below par performance across the country in the Lok Sabha polls, but it can take heart from the results in Punjab. The fledgling party, with no organization or money power to fall back on, stunned political observers by bagging four of the state’s 13 seats. It won Sangrur, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala constituencies, holding it’s own against established parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress. The latter could manage only three seats in the state, while SAD bagged six despite the great public interest in Narendra Modi.

When the campaign for the general elections in Punjab began, no one, certainly not the Akalis and the Congress, gave any chance to the AAP making any impact. Traditionally, the fight was always between the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine and the Congress. One or the other party remained in power with the BSP, CPI and others occasionally winning a seat or two. The AAP has ended the Punjab’s two-party era and could pose a serious threat to other parties in the next assembly elections. No other party in recent times has caused such excitement among the voters in Punjab as the AAP.

Consider the odds before the party before it jumped into the electoral fray, and you get a clearer perspective of their show. It was contesting polls in Punjab for the first time. It did not have the funds to campaign unlike other national parties. Besides party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Yogendra Yadav, it did not have any star campaigner of its own. Most AAP’s candidates were unknown faces, except comedian-turned-actor Bhagwant Mann, who was entering the political fray for the first time. The Modi wave threatened to help the BJP candidates in a big way. Yet the AAP managed to give a scare to both the BJP and the Congress as it cut into the traditional vote banks of both parties in urban as well as rural areas.

“This is a victory of the common man. People of Sangrur have proved that voters can play a bigger role in democracy than what politicians feel they can,” said Bhagwant Mann, who won the Sangrur seat for AAP. “Wherever I went during election campaign I saw that people of Punjab were angry with the Congress and the Akali Dal, which had not done anything for the people despite rising corruption and unemployment. I promise to live up to the expectations of people,” he added.

All through the campaign in Punjab, there were talks of the anti-incumbency factor working against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal–BJP government in the state. However, both parties were convinced that the Modi factor would neutralize it. While the main opposition Congress remained hamstrung by its own performance at the centre, the AAP was quick to capitalize on the prevailing mood against the governments at both levels. With no Modi factor at play, it could have notched up a far superior performance. According to political analysts, the party ended up eating into Congress votes more than that of the SAD-BJP.

The growing drug menace, which is threatening to destroy an entire generation in the state, rising unemployment, price hike, poor infrastructure, law and order problems, influence of the sand mafia, power shortage and growing corruption were the main issues on which all the parties based their campaign. However, it was the AAP that was able to put its message across better than the rest.

“It is a dream debut for us. We are extremely happy for putting up a superlative performance in Punjab. We could not do well in Haryana, but will be better prepared for the assembly elections there due in a few months time. Punjab’s victory will provide inspiration to Haryana,” said Professor Manjit Singh, AAP spokesman.