Polls showed AAP support base erosion with party managing lead in 2 segments

Amritsar, June 5

Two years after the Aam Aadmi Party gave a stellar performance in the 2022 Assembly elections when it won nine of the 11 Assembly segments in the district, its support base has considerably dwindled with the party managing a lead from only two Assembly segments during the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

Though AAP candidate Kuldeep Dhaliwal ended as runners-up in the constituency with a vote share of 23.73 per cent, he managed a lead only from two constituencies, Ajnala and Amritsar South. In the present Vidhan Sabha, Ajnala is represented by Dhaliwal himself and Amritsar South is represented by Dr Inderbir Singh Nijjer.

In the last Assembly elections, the AAP had lost only two seats— Rajasansi and Majitha. After the formation of the government, the party had inducted three MLAs as Cabinet Minister. Even as Dr Nijjer was later dropped, the district has two Cabinet Ministers, Dhaliwal and Harbhajan Singh ETO. However, despite all this, the party has managed to save its face.

While the AAP candidate asked for votes on the basis of the state government’s two years performance, the voters were perhaps not impressed. Though the party has fulfilled its promise of 300 units of free electricity every month, the government miserably failed as far as its commitment regarding drug menace and corruption are concerned.

“The party leaders may claim otherwise, but corruption in government offices has increased. A common man cannot get any work done without paying a bribe, be it getting an NOC from the local bodies or a paper from the Revenue Department,” said Joginder Singh, a local resident.

The residents were of the view that the government had also not delivered on its promise of providing good governance.