Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Results: For third time in a row, only Punjab elects AAP MPs

While it looks like the AAP will be able to hold on to the three seats, it’s a poor show for the party, given that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had launched ‘Mission 13-0 (13 seats for the AAP)’ and had refused to tie up with Congress. Mann’s refusal came despite the AAP being is a constituent of the INDIA alliance at the national level.

122 rallies, road shows in 25 days

Mann had campaigned aggressively in the state by addressing at least 122 rallies and road shows in the last 25 days. On the day of elections, he had said “I did not leave any constituency and got a positive response from people everywhere. During the election campaign, I asked for votes from the people on the basis of my two-year work.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also spent the last week campaigning in Punjab after the Delhi elections were over. Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha had also campaigned in different parts of the state.

What happened in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections

In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Punjab was the only state to have elected four AAP MPs. The four elected by Punjab in 2014 included Bhagwant Mann himself from Sangrur, Dr Dharamvira Gandhi from Patiala, Harinder Singh Khalsa from Fatehgarh Sahib and Prof Sadhu Singh from Faridkot. The AAP had secured 25 per cent votes in Punjab.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, only one AAP MP was elected from Punjab — Bhagwant Mann, who got a margin of over one lakh votes.

Bhagwant Mann’s oath as CM and a loss for AAP

Later, after Mann was elected as an MLA and took oath as the Chief Minister, a byelection was necessitated from the Sangrur seat. However, this time, the seat was snatched by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann in the Lok Sabha byelection of 2022.

AAP’s comeback with Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypolls

Later, in May 2023, the AAP won the Jalandhar byelection, necessitated by the death of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary. He died of a heart attack during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.