Bhubaneswar: Rising from the ashes like the phoenix, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday, in a maiden emphatic win, crushed the traditional players that ruled the border state of Punjab for over seven decades with a stunning victory largely by its greenhorns on 92 of the 117 seats of the legislative assembly.
Congress stalwarts like Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu faced humiliating defeat from their respective strongholds.
Channi had contested the elections from two seats—Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib. He was defeated in Bhadaur by AAP candidate Labh Singh Ugoke and by Dr Charanjit Singh in Chamkaur Sahib.
Ugoke, a Class 12 pass and first-timer had joined the party as a volunteer in 2013. He earlier worked in a mobile repair shop. His mother works as a safai karmachari in a government school and his father is a driver.
Dr Charanjit Singh is an eye surgeon who runs a hospital in Morinda. He had earlier been defeated by Channi in 2017 but he was able to trounce the incumbent CM in the 2022 elections.
Sidhu lost the Amritsar East seat to AAP’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur. As a first-time candidate, she not only Sidhu, but she also toppled Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia.
Kaur, popular as the ‘Pad Woman’ of Amritsar for her efforts in spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene, is the chairperson of SHE Society that runs a school for the underprivileged and also works to “develop sustainable and self-reliant communities”.
She joined AAP in March 2016 and rose through the ranks to become the district president of the party for Amritsar (Urban). She has also been the spokesperson for AAP Punjab.
Congress rebel and two-time Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, whose newly floated Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) fought the elections in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), lost his Patiala Urban stronghold to AAP’s Ajit Pal Singh Kohli.
A businessman by profession, Kohli was earlier associated with the Akali Dal before joining AAP. He was also elected the mayor of Patiala Municipal Corporation in 2011. His father Surjeet Singh Kohli has served as a cabinet minister as well.
All the Badals, led by five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the eldest candidate at 94 in the fray, as well as their kin lost to AAP’s greenhorns.
The eldest Badal, who won the seat five times in a row since 1997, lost to Gurmeet Khuddian from Lambi, while his son and SAD chief and Member of Parliament Sukhbir Badal lost to Jagdeep Kamboj from Jalalabad. Majithia is the brother-in-law of Sukhbir.
Khuddian was associated with Congress for more than 30 years but left the party and joined AAP on July 26, 2021. His father Jagdev Singh Khuddian had won the Lok Sabha election from Faridkot parliamentary seat on SAD (Amritsar) ticket in 1989.
Kamboj, a former national secretary of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), had earlier contested the 2019 elections as an Independent candidate but faced defeat. A farmer/businessman by profession, he is the President of BC Wing AAP Punjab.
(With inputs from IANS)
