NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, MARCH 10
Hailing the AAP’s performance in Punjab as a “revolution”, party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that with their huge mandate, the people have said that Kejriwal is not a terrorist.
People of Punjab have given reply to this disgraceful politics of bad-mouthing and abuses. We forgive you @sherryontop, but people of Punjab won't tolerate such low discourse again, this is dawn of change, politics of development and positive discourse. https://t.co/guV44MMbxv pic.twitter.com/TPuP4LrwKz
— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab) March 10, 2022
First this revolution happened in Delhi, then in Punjab and it will now happen all over country, he said as trends showed that the AAP was set to form government in the state, by winning in 92 of the 117 assembly seats.
While addressing AAP leaders and workers at the party headquarters here, the Delhi chief minister asked them to practice politics of love and said the coming days belong to India.He congratulated the voters of Punjab for leading the AAP to a “glorious victory” in the assembly polls and said they made political stalwarts bite the dust.
Within a span of 10 years, the Kejriwal-led AAP has turned out to be the fastest growing political party in India as the jhaadu swept the Punjab assembly elections, in the process becoming the first regional party to win a second state in India (after the Union Territory of Delhi).
.@raghav_chadha's FULL SPEECH after #AAPSweepsPunjab | LIVE https://t.co/pexxJvyQL5
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) March 10, 2022
Senior party leaders on Thursday said the next move for the AAP will be to put up a ‘good’ fight in the Gujarat elections scheduled in December this year.
Given that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been the strongest in Gujarat, AAP is keeping its target realistic. Its plan for the Gujarat polls is to emerge as the primary opposition party to the incumbent BJP, and leave the Congress playing third fiddle.
“Today’s result has motivated our party cadre here in Gujarat. We will go all out in these nine months to become the main contender against the BJP in Gujarat. Congress has been rejected by the people here for the last 27 years. The victory in Punjab will also give a new hope to our supporters in the state,” said Gulab Singh, AAP’s Gujarat in-charge.
“Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann will be coming to Gujarat in the first week of April to celebrate AAP’s victory in Punjab. Until then, our party cadre will take out victory marches in every ward of Gujarat until March 16. We are confident of toppling the Congress,” he added.
Of the five states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur – that went to polls now, the AAP contested in four. In Punjab, the party on Thursday clinched a clear victory. In a one-line tweet, Kejriwal, while sharing a picture with AAP’s CM candidate Bhagwant Mann, described the party’s landslide victory in Punjab as an inquilab (revolution).
“Many congratulations to the people of Punjab for this revolution,” he said.
Raghav Chadha, AAP’s Punjab co-incharge and MLA from Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar, said his party has now become a “national force”. “It is a big day for AAP as a party. Today, we are no longer a regional party. We have become a national party. I am certain that Kejriwal will lead the nation one day and by 2024, AAP will be a national party and a natural replacement of the Congress. Even the BJP took much more time to win two states than the AAP, which was founded in 2012,” he said.
Sisodia said the election result shows that the Kejriwal model of governance has now been established at a national level. “Kejriwal model includes focusing on education, healthcare, employment opportunities and women safety among others. Kejriwal is fulfilling the dream of freedom fighters BR Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh. This is not a victory of the AAP but a win of the common man… Punjab has given a chance to Kejriwal’s model of governance. Today, his model of governance has been established at the national level,” he said.
