After the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi Assembly elections, party leader Arvind Kejriwal has called a meeting of AAP MLAs and ministers in Punjab, the only state where the party is currently in power. This meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, comes in response to claims by state Congress leaders that they are in contact with nearly 30 AAP AAP MLAs.
In light of the Delhi Assembly election results, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regained power after 27 years, ending AAP’s decade-long rule, Punjab Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa stated that he has been in communication with AAP MLAs in the state “for a long time.” He remarked that the AAP MLAs have come to realize that “this was a one-way ticket to the moon, and they are not coming back.”
Moreover, opposition leaders are predicting a potential split within the AAP in Punjab, along with a possible reshuffle in the state government.
In the 2022 Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP came to power by winning 92 out of the 117 seats, while the Congress secured 18 seats, and the Shiromani Akali Dal has three MLAs.
Bajwa also suggested that there is a possibility of Kejriwal contesting from Ludhiana, which is currently vacant, and potentially joining the Punjab government. Punjab BJP leader Subhash Sharma echoed this, asserting that Kejriwal may be aiming for the Chief Ministerial role in Punjab.
However, AAP MP Malvinder Singh Kang stated that the meeting is part of a “continuous process” designed to gather feedback from party units to inform future strategies.
While AAP had previously ruled Delhi with 67 MLAs in the 70-member assembly, they managed to secure only 22 seats in the February 5 election. The party’s prominent figures, including Kejriwal, former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, and leaders Awadh Ojha and Somnath Bharti, were all defeated in the elections, except Atishi, who successfully retained her seat.
