New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party convener and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday had a message of “never be overconfident in the elections” for the Congress as results for the Haryana assembly election began coming and projected a BJP win in the state.
At a meeting with Delhi’s municipal councillors, Kejriwal, whose party fielded candidates on 89 of the 90 seats in Haryana after seat-sharing talks with the Congress failed, said: “Let us see how the election results are in Haryana. The biggest lesson one can take is that one should never be overconfident.”
AAP's Performance In Haryana Assembly Elections 2024
As for AAP, despite hectic campaigning by its top leadership in the state during the assembly poll, it managed to get only about 1.75 per cent of all votes polled. It was marginally higher than the BSP’s vote share. All the three main parties – the Congress, the BJP, and the Indian National Lok Dal — polled far more.
Kejriwal campaigned aggressively through the state projecting his “son of the soil” card, as he was born in Bhiwani, failed to live up to expectations. There was media hype around AAP’s entry into the fray, especially since the party rules the two neighbouring states of Delhi and Punjab and had deployed both its central leaders and state leaders for campaigning. On Tuesday, Kejriwal added, “No election should be taken lightly since each election and each seat is tough”. He could not have been more correct.
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The results have, however, also upset Kejriwal’s own calculations as he believed and had stated publicly that “no government will be formed in Haryana without AAP’s support”. That dream has crashed.
Claim Made By AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal
Meanwhile, AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal claimed that her own party betrayed the INDIA bloc by fielding its candidates on almost all seats in Haryana and “cutting votes” of the Congress.
In a post on X, Maliwal wrote: “He came to Haryana only to take revenge from Congress. He falsely accused me of being a BJP agent, and today he himself is betraying the INDIA bloc and cutting votes of INC!”
Pointing out that AAP candidates lost their deposits on most seats, she had a word of advice for Kejriwal: “There is still time, give up your ego, remove the veil from your blurry eyes, stop doing drama and work for the people.”
