AAP wins 4 seats, leads on 1

By Anish Pathiyil and Elisha Vermani

Chennai, Dec 8: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won 4 seats and is leading on 1, as of trends published by the Election Commission (EC) at 4 pm. The party also secured national party status after securing 13 percent vote share, a massive jump from 0.1% in 2017.

“Aam Aadmi Party is becoming a national party today with the votes of the people of Gujarat. For the first time the politics of education and health is making a mark in national politics,” tweeted senior leader Manish Sisodia.

AAP is contesting elections on all 182 constituencies this year, as opposed to fielding candidates on only 29 constituencies in 2017. The 10-year-old party has made inroads in Gujarat, a state which has historically seen a two-party fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

In 2021 AAP had put up a good show after replacing Congress as the second-biggest party in Surat municipal polls by securing about 28 per cent vote share.

Although Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had ambitiously declared that they would form the next government, party spokesperson Preeti S Menon said, earlier today, that the party would be happy to just open their account in the state.

Social scientist Ghanshyam Shah told Scroll that this is the first time a new party has emerged that is not an offshoot of the Congress or BJP. “They have contested elections in Gujarat in the past too, they didn’t do well for sure, but they have stuck around and built a structure,” he added.

Political experts opined that the increase in AAP’s vote share has resulted in the decrease in seats and vote share of the Congress. BJP and Congress were in a neck-to-neck battle on 36 seats, 25 of which were held by Congress. BJP clinched 25 of them because of AAP capturing the latter’s vote share.

Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said, "In Gujarat, the AAP spent a lot. My information says that the BJP funded the AAP to divide the Congress vote. Because the AAP contested the election, we lagged behind."