Where they stand 2024: Lok Sabha poll puts AAP popularity, track record to test in Punjab

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 6

As the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections is picking up, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party is ready to fight on its performance and governance.

By fielding five ministers, three sitting MLAs, three imports from other parties, one political greenhorn and its chief spokesperson, the party is trying to put its best foot forward to win the maximum seats in the state, like it got in the 2022 Assembly elections.

Having quickly recovered from the embarrassment caused by its incumbent Jalandhar MP and party candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku, an import from the Congress, jumping ship to the BJP, the party brought in another turncoat Pawan Kumar Tinu from SAD as its candidate.

The AAP government, despite the initial hiccups, including the sensational murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala, has managed to stay out of controversy and focused on its agenda and fulfilled its guarantees given to voters before the Assembly elections.

Barring the allowance of Rs 1,000 to every woman, they have managed to fulfil their guarantees of providing free power to 90 per cent domestic consumers, jobs to 43,000 youth doorstep delivery of ration, strengthening healthcare and education facilities.

The party is taking the achievements to people seeking votes for its candidates. The challenge for the party is mainly to get the maximum vote percentage. The party has, however, not fielded a single woman as its candidate for the General Election.

Battling a public perception created by their political opponents of being “unable to run the government effectively and the government being run by the party’s Delhi-appointed members who give academic solutions to problems rather than practical solutions, leading to poor governance”, is a daunting task for the party in this election. These murmurs have begun to die down as the ruling party has managed to fulfil quite a few of their pre-poll promises and the “coming of age of Bhagwant Mann as the Chief Minister and the party’s tallest leader”, and not just in Punjab.

While the current equation within the party is giving a boost to Mann’s image as the undisputed “king”, this concentration of power has its own downside. With Mann getting busy as the “star campaigner for AAP post the arrest of party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and campaigning in other states as well, the candidates are left to run their campaigns themselves with support from the teams led by its RS MP Sandeep Pathak. To their credit, however, it must be said the most candidates have already started canvassing aggressively, forcing their opponents to follow suit.

By being the first political party in Punjab to announce its candidates, the AAP candidates managed to get on the ground first.

The ministers, who are not contesting the elections, are staying put in their own constituencies, with the sole aim of giving a lead to party candidates from their own Assembly segments. However, the fact that most of their Rajya Sabha members staying away from the party election campaign, too, is not going down well with the voters.

Journey so far

2014: AAP made its political debut when it won four LS seats

2017: AAP candidates won 20 Assembly segments. Within a year, there was a rebellion by eight MLAs in the party

2019: Bhagwant Mann was the only AAP candidate to win the LS poll in the country

2022: The party won 92 of the 117 seats. However, within just three months, AAP lost the Sangrur LS by poll

2023: AAP won the Jalandhar bypoll

The candidates

Five ministers: Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer (Sangrur), Gurmeet Singh Khuddian (Bathinda) Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal (Amritsar), Dr Balbir Singh (Patiala) and Laljit Singh Bhullar (Khadoor Sahib).

Three turncoats: Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal (a sitting Congress MLA, who has resigned from Congress) from Hoshiarpur; Pawan Kumar Tinu (formerly with SAD) from Jalandhar and Gurpreet Singh GP (a former Congress MLA) from Fatehgarh Sahib

Three MLAs: Ashok Pappi Prashar (MLA from Ludhiana Central) has been fielded from Ludhiana, Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi (Batala MLA) from Gurdaspur and Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar (MLA from Muktsar) from Ferozepur.

Political greenhorn: Actor Karamjit Anmol from Faridkot

Party spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang from Anandpur Sahib

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