The results of the Assembly elections in Punjab is not less than a revolution, said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, indicating the future expansion of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in other provinces, by asserting that “women, youth, common people across the country will join this revolution to change the system”.

A resounding triumph

It was a resounding triumph for AAP with most of its candidates winning with margins of more than 10,000 votes. The party won 92 seats in the 117-member Assembly. The Congress could got barely 18 seats; the BJP alliance, which included the former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, won two seats, and the SAD-BSP alliance won four.

Unlike in Delhi, where the AAP had captured the electoral arena almost overnight by sweeping the State Assembly polls barely months after its formation, AAP has worked steadily as an agile opposition party in Punjab. It consolidated during the one-year-long anti-farm laws movement on Delhi borders, chiefly led by Punjab peasants, by supplying drinking water and other amenities, and constantly attacking the State government led by the Congress for not fulfilling their promises to farmers.

The AAP tread carefully at the time of finding candidates and also while deciding that Bhagwant Mann will be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the party. Mann, addressing the party workers, said he will not allow using the Chief Minister’s picture with government projects, but will enncorage using the pictures of BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh. He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held Khatkar Kalan, the village of Bhagat Singh and not at the Raj Bhawan. In Dhuri, Mann defeated Congress’s Dalvir Singh Goldy for over 58,206 votes.

All traditional parties suffered at the hands of AAP. The Congress, the SAD, the BJP, the BSP and the newly formed party of former Chief Minister Amrinder Singh, suffered setbacks. Leaders such as former Chief Ministers Parkash Singh Badal, Charanjit Singh Channi, Amarinder Singh, former Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, his cousin Congress leader and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, PCC President Navjot Singh Sidhu and SAD strongman Bikram Singh Majithia, were defeated by the AAP. “This is a big revolution,” said Kejriwal, and invoked Bhagat Singh. “Bhagat Singh had said that even after independence, if we do not change the system created by the British, we will not be able to go forward. Political parties were keeping the British system in tact in the last 75 years. AAP changed the system in the last seven years. We will fulfil the promises of Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh,” said Kejriwal.

He said all big political powers wanted to pull back the country from marching forwards. He said they conspired against the AAP by branding him as a terrorist. “People replied through ballots that Kejriwal is a patriot. Terrorists are those who loot the country. We will make a new India for the common man, where there won’t be any difference between the rich and the poor. Students won’t have to go to countries like Ukraine to study. We will start medical colleges here,” he added.

He urged women, youth, farmers, workers to join the AAP, and said Chief Minister Channi was defeated by Labh Singh Ugoke in Bhadaur, who is a worker in a mobile repair shop. “His mother is a cleaning staff in a government school. Similarly, Sidhu and Majithia were defeated by Jeevan Jyot Kaur who is a common woman volunteer of the AAP,” said Kejriwal.

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