Punjab bypolls: Party leaders call for urgent introspection as AAP continues its downward slide

In Phagwara too, AAP had to cut a sorry figure with its candidate, Santish Kumar Gogi, securing only 2910 votes as compared to 2017 when the joint candidate of the party and Lok Insaaf Party had managed to get 32251 votes.

The performance in Mukerian and Jalalabad were better in comparison but still nowhere near the performance of 2017. The AAP candidate in Jalalabad, Mohinder Singh, received 11301 votes as compared to 56494 in 2017. In Mukerian, the candidate, Gurdhian Singh Multani got 8261 votes as against 16813 votes in 2017.

The much touted re-organisation of the party does not seem to have done anything as there seems to be no respite from the poor show by AAP in each successive election since 2017. State president Bhagwant Mann had campaigned extensively for the party candidates, especially in Dakha, but to no avail.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Leader of Opposition and senior AAP MLA, Harpal Cheema said that the party would be holding introspection on the causes of the poor display at the hustings in the core committee meeting in coming days. “No doubt our performance has not been satisfactory but we are focussing on the re-organisation of the party structure down to the booth level and this will definitely improve the functioning of the party,” he said.

AAP has had to face the ire of voters in Dakha constituency who were annoyed that the sitting MLA, HS Phoolka, deserted them midway even though they had elected him with a good majority. “We had to face the anger of voters during the campaign in Dakha and that is why our result has not been particularly good there. We did not want Phoolka to resign but it was his personal decision and not the decision of the party,” he said.

Suspended party MLA Kanwar Sandhu said that this was yet another low for the party in the string of defeats. “Whoever is responsible for the present state of affairs of the party, responsible for selection of candidates and the way the party is being run must own up,” he said. Sandhu, who had been suspended along with former party leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira in 2018 after Khaira was removed as Leader of Opposition, said that a revamp of AAP in Punjab was needed. “There is a need for restructuring and introspection. A new thinking is required and we need to re-think our strategy. Sadly, this is not being done,” he said.

Sunam MLA, Aman Arora, who has raised the issue of introspection about party’s state of affairs on several occasions within the party forums reacted by saying that there was a decline in the party’s performance as compared to 2017 but there was a marginal improvement in two seats as compared to 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “People of Dakha have rejected Congress, Jalalabad has rejected Akalis, and Phagwara has rejected BJP. There is a vacuum which exists and we still have the potential to fill that. I had raised the issue of introspection within the core committee when the candidates for the bypolls were announced. I was told that it would happen after the results. I am now looking forward to that introspection” said Arora.

Following the rebellion in the party with a group of MLAs led by Khaira having raised a banner of revolt demanding more autonomy for the Punjab unit, the central leadership of AAP had given wide ranging powers to the state unit and all decisions are now being taken by the state core committee which are vetted by the central leadership.