After sweeping Delhi, AAP eyes Punjab polls

Riding high on its historic win in the Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now eyeing at the Punjab polls scheduled in 2017. 

The party is going to send a 15-member delegation to Punjab, which will conduct a field study of the state to form booth-level committees in three months.Party sources said Ashish Talwar and Durgesh Pathak, who played an important role in Delhi, will lead the Punjab team. AAP is considering the state polls to be a launch pad for itself in the Indian politics.

“We do not have a party structure compared with others. However, we did pretty well in Punjab where we won four seats. We expect better results in the upcoming Assembly elections,” said a partly leader, on the condition of anonymity.

He added, “We have emerged as an important party in two states (Delhi and Punjab). Punjab brought good news for AAP as we secured over 24 per cent votes in the Parliamentary elections last year. The party will change the equations there and Punjab politics will now be tri-polar.” 

The party had bagged 2% lesser votes than the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which bagged over 26% votes in the Lok Sabha elections. Despite the high vote share of 33% , it has managed to win only three seats, while AAP and SAD have both won four seats each and the BJP bagged two seats with a vote share of 8.7%.