Effect of AAP’s defeat in Punjab… Kejriwal called a meeting of Mann government’s ministers and MLAs in Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections. A day after the election results, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal has called a meeting of all his MLAs and ministers of Punjab in Delhi on February 11. This meeting will be held at Kapurthala House in Delhi (the official residence of the Chief Minister of Punjab in the national capital Delhi). All the MLAs have been informed about this and they have been asked to cancel all their proposed programs on February 11.
Arvind Kejriwal has called this meeting after the claim of Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Pratap Singh Bajwa, in which he said that about 30 MLAs of AAP are in touch with the Congress. Apart from Bajwa, some other Congress leaders of the state also said that AAP MLAs are in touch with their party. Aam Aadmi Party has earlier also accused BJP of trying to break its MLAs in Punjab under ‘Operation Lotus’. But this time Congress has claimed to be in touch with AAP MLAs.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was camping in Delhi for the last three days. He reached Punjab on 9 February. Soon after this, the cabinet meeting to be held on Monday was postponed till 13 February. Let us tell you that this will be the first cabinet meeting in Punjab in the last four months, which was scheduled for 6 February, but later it was postponed to 10 February. After the disappointing performance in the Delhi elections (Aam Aadmi Party could win only 22 out of 70 seats), the focus of the top leadership of AAP has shifted to Punjab, which is now the only state where the party is in power.
AAP got a huge majority in Punjab in 2022
Although the agenda of this meeting has been kept secret, it is believed that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal will motivate the party MLAs not to be disappointed by the defeat in Delhi. Kejriwal would like to send a message to Punjab MLAs that they should not let the arrogance of ‘power’ overwhelm them and reconnect with the voters in their respective constituencies as ‘aam aadmi’. The next assembly elections in Punjab are due in 2027. In the 2022 elections, the Aam Aadmi Party won power in the state with a thumping majority by winning 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly.
Reacting to the Delhi assembly election results, where the BJP came to power after 27 years and ended the decade-long rule of the AAP, Punjab Leader of Opposition Pratap Singh Bajwa claimed that he has been in touch with AAP MLAs in the state for a long time. He claimed that the AAP MLAs have realized that their party is not going to return to power in the next assembly elections. Other opposition leaders also predicted a possible split within the AAP in Punjab and a reshuffle in the state government.
Delhi results mark the beginning of the end of AAP: Bajwa
Partap Singh Bajwa said, ‘The Delhi results mark the beginning of the end of AAP. The people of Punjab have also seen the true face of the so-called hardcore honest party. Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann fooled Punjabis and made big promises in Punjab to get their votes in 2022.’ The Congress leader further claimed that Arvind Kejriwal is likely to contest from Ludhiana and join the Punjab government, which is currently vacant.
Kejriwal now eyeing Punjab CM: BJP
Punjab BJP leader Subhash Sharma also claimed that Kejriwal could become the Chief Minister of Punjab. Let us tell you that AAP was ruling Delhi since 2015. It had 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. In the elections held on February 5, it was reduced to 22 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party won Delhi for the first time since 1993. Except Atishi and Gopal Rai, all the big leaders of Aam Aadmi Party lost the elections. Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Durgesh Pathak, Satyendra Jain, Somnath Bharti, Awadh Ojha had to face defeat on their respective seats.
