Chandigarh [India]: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday departed for Delhi to meet Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal. The meeting has been called in the wake of AAP’s crushing defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.
Kejriwal is set to meet Punjab MLAs and party leaders in Delhi to discuss the electoral setback and strategize for the future.
BJP’s Historic Victory in Delhi Elections
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a comfortable victory, winning 48 out of 70 seats, while AAP faced a massive setback, dropping from 62 seats in 2020 to just 22 in the latest polls. This landslide win marks BJP’s return to power in Delhi after 27 years.
The Congress, which ruled Delhi for 15 years from 1998 to 2013, failed to secure a single seat for the third consecutive time, suffering another major political blow.
In one of the most significant results, BJP’s Parvesh Verma pulled off a stunning victory over former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi constituency, defeating him by over 4,000 votes.
Political Ramifications for AAP and Punjab
With the loss in Delhi, Punjab remains the only state where AAP is in power, making it crucial for the party to hold its state unit together. However, the BJP has claimed that AAP’s Punjab government may not last long.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh on Monday declared that the “countdown for the fall of the AAP government in Punjab has begun,” calling it a “house of cards” that would soon collapse.
He further stated that AAP’s much-touted “Delhi model”—which Bhagwant Mann had aimed to replicate in Punjab—had been outrightly rejected by Delhi voters.
Earlier, BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal also slammed Arvind Kejriwal, asserting that the people of Delhi had “punished” him for the state’s condition and warned that Punjab could face a similar situation if governance did not improve.