Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 20
The crushing defeat suffered by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in local body elections has raised a question mark on the future of the main Opposition party in Punjab.
The party had fielded 1,606 candidates in 2,037 wards, highest after the Congress. However, just 60 candidates of the party could win. It was just 2.5 per cent of the total seats. The party, which was claiming to win over 100 Assembly seats out of the 117, couldn’t even win 100 wards in municipal elections. In five districts, even a single candidate of the party could not win the election.
The performance is being seen as a big blow, especially when looked in comparison with the BJP. The saffron party, which has just two MLAs as compared to AAP’s 19, was contesting against all odds due to farm laws. Despite that, the BJP is not much behind AAP. The Akali Dal has also performed much better than AAP with 252 seats.
Party MLA Kanwar Sandhu, who is now under suspension, was prompt to comment on the development. He tweeted how the party’s ‘blunders’ during the 2017 Assembly election campaign snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. “The failure to introspect further marginalised it. Inability to course-correct leading to decimation. Those parroting ‘party strengthening base’ are enemies within,” he said. A senior leader of the party said the decision to contest the municipal elections was taken at the last moment. “The party decided to contest the poll in the last week of December. It was challenging to find the candidates a month before the elections.”
Civic body poll rout raises questions on AAP’s future
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