THE Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday stormed Punjab, winning 92 of the 117 Assembly seats, decimating the Congress and the SAD-BSP combine and making leaders like CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh bite the dust. While AAP bagged three-fourth of the seats, the Congress won 18, SAD 3, BJP 2 and BSP 1. An Independent also emerged victorious. AAP will now form its second Government in the country after the one led by Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. Kejriwal hailed the party’s performance in Punjab as a “revolution” while his party leader Raghav Chadha said AAP will emerge as the replacement of the Congress at the national-level in coming days. Political stalwarts like Channi, Parkash Singh Badal, Amarinder Singh, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sukhbir Singh Badal had to face the drubbing.

 

Channi was drubbed by AAP’s Labh Singh Ugoke with a margin of 37,558 votes from Bhadaur. He also lost from Chamkaur Sahib, where he was defeated by AAP’s Charanjit Singh by a margin of 7,942 votes. SAD patriarch and former CM Parkash Singh Badal (94), the oldest candidate in the fray, lost to AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Khudian from his traditional Lambi seat in Muktsar district by a margin of 11,396 votes. SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal lost to AAP’s Jagdeep Kamboj from Jalalabad seat in Punjab’s Fazilka district by a margin of 30,930 votes. Amarinder Singh, 79, was defeated by AAP candidate Ajit Pal Singh Kohli from Patiala (Urban) by a margin of 19,873 votes.

 

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia and several Punjab Ministers also tasted defeat. AAP’s chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann won from Dhuri by a huge margin of 58,206 votes. In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, the Congress had ended the SAD-BJP’s 10-year rule by bagging 77 seats. AAP had managed to get 20 seats while the SAD-BJP had won 18 seats and two seats went to the Lok Insaaf Party. “Many congratulations to the people of Punjab for this revolution,” AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi. He also posted a picture of him standing with party’s chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann. Rival parties also congratulated AAP. Channi said, “I humbly accept the verdict of the people of Punjab and Congratulate @AamAadmiParty and their elected CM @BhagwantMann Ji for the victory. I hope they will deliver on the expectations of people.”