New Delhi: It was a disappointing debut for newcomer Aam Aadmi Party, bagging only four of 443 seats it contested across the country and failing to win a single seat in the national capital despite its impressive show in the last assembly elections.
All the victories were achieved in Punjab — Faridkot (Sadu Singh), Fatehgarh Sahib (Harinder Singh Khalsa), Patiala (Dharam Vira Gandhi) and Sangrur (Bhagwant Mann). AAP sprang a surprise in Patiala where Gandhi, a medico-turned-politician, trounced Union Minister Preneet Kaur in her home turf.
Its leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Vishwas who had taken on Narendra Modi in Varanasi and Rahul Gandhi in Amethi respectively, lost their electoral battles.
Many of the prominent candidates like Shazia Ilmi (Ghaziabad), social activist Medha Patkar (Mumbai North east), Meera Sanyal (Mumbai South), Ashutosh (Chandni Chowk), Yogendra Yadav (Gurgaon) and tribal activist Soni Sori (Bastar) also lost, some even securing fourth and fifth positions.
The party admitted that its decision to quit the Delhi government in a hurry was a mistake. The party had made a sensational debut in Delhi by winning 28 seats in the assembly election and even went on to form the government.
“This was the first national election for the AAP and there are some positive and negative indications from it,” party leader Yogendra Yadav said. (PTI)