Punjab AAP president and CM Bhagwant Mann’s Mission 13-0 defeated, blame game set to begin

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, June 4

Aam Aadmi Party Punjab president and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s prediction of winning all 13 seats during his high-decibel political campaign has proved to be inaccurate. His Mission 13-0 is defeated.

As the party sits down to analyse its performance in the elections, two big questions are being asked: Where will the buck stop? And, who in the party will take the blame for this rather poor show?

With Opposition parties maintaining that this election is a referendum on the AAP government’s performance, the party will likely respond by bringing in new faces in the Cabinet and course-correct its governance model, especially in the last-mile delivery of sops and other public-oriented schemes.

Of the five ministers in the electoral arena, only one has managed to win. Of the remaining four, Laljit Bhullar was in third place in Khadoor Sahib while Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Dr Balbir Singh were first runners-up. None of the party’s three MLAs — Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi, Ashok Prashar Pappi or Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar — were fielded for the LS polls, has won. Both Amansher Singh and Ashok Prashar lost in their own Assembly segments. Kaka Brar led in his own constituency, but trailed in all other Assembly segments of Ferozepur, making the party vulnerable, especially amid threats by the BJP top brass, saying the AAP government in Punjab will fall after the results are announced.

Sources in the party say the campaign was entirely run by CM Mann with help from party Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, while all ministers were asked to remain in their respective constituencies to ensure sizeable leads from there. It is learnt the CM is unhappy with the “lack of enthusiasm shown by his Cabinet colleagues during the campaign”, while the ministers maintain that the campaign strategy and the choice of candidates were neither discussed with them, nor were they asked to campaign in constituencies other than their own. Nor was any of their photos used anywhere in the campaign.

The only solace for AAP is that they have wrested back their “political capital of Sangrur” with a thumping majority of 1.72 lakh votes, besides winning Anandpur Sahib and Hoshiarpur. Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, with the support of CM Bhagwant Mann and ministers Harpal Cheema and Aman Arora, took the lead of over 1.72 lakh votes; Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, the candidate just left the Congress, took the lead of almost 44,000 votes and Anandpur Sahib candidate Malvinder Singh Kang won by a narrow margin of over 11,000 votes. The party stood second in six constituencies of Amritsar, Patiala, Faridkot, Bathinda, Ferozepur and Fatehgarh Sahib.The party has won just three of the Lok Sabha seats.