The Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls has set the ball rolling for its downfall in Punjab too, opposition leaders in the state claimed on Saturday.
The BJP cleaned out the AAP in Delhi and returned to power in Delhi after more than 26 years, extending its saffron imprint and dealing a devastating blow to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party whose top leadership crumbled or barely made it.
It is the second setback to the party since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The AAP could win only three Lok Sabha seats out of 13 parliamentary constituencies in Punjab.
The AAP stormed to power in Punjab in 2022 by winning 92 of the total 117 Assembly seats.
Before the Delhi Assembly polls, the entire Punjab unit of AAP, including chief minister Bhagwant Mann, cabinet ministers, MPs and MLAs aggressively took part in poll campaigns in Delhi.
The leaders spoke about giving 50,000 government jobs, free 300 units of electricity and opening 850 'mohalla clinics' and the purchase of a private thermal power plant in Punjab as some of the better works done by the party in the state.
Mann, who was the party's star campaigner, took out roadshows in Delhi and showcased his government's works to seek votes for the AAP candidates.
The defeat in the national capital has left the AAP with Punjab as the sole state under its governance.
The opposition parties in Punjab on Saturday slammed the AAP and said the people of Delhi "exposed the lies and deceit" of the Arvind-Kejriwal-led outfit.
They lashed out at the Mann government, alleging "misgovernance" and "deceiving voters with false promises."
Punjab BJP general secretary Subhash Sharma said, "It is a defeat of Arvind Kejriwal's lies, deceit and dishonesty. People of Delhi today showed that you cannot rule the state for long by making false promises."
He alleged that the AAP and Kejriwal put Delhi into a "miserable" condition.
"It is a lesson for all AAP leaders in Punjab that what they have done to Punjab in the past three years, their condition will be worse than what happened in Delhi," he said.
"The downfall of the AAP government in Punjab starts today. The party's main leader (Kejriwal) is losing. The countdown of the AAP government starts," Sharma added.
Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa alleged that the AAP would now "disintegrate" in Punjab. "There would be an internal power struggle between Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal."
The leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Bajwa alleged that Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others lost the Delhi assembly seats "due to being neck deep in corruption, non-performance and sheer arrogance."
BJP leader Preneet Kaur said, "We are happy that BJP is winning."
She said the AAP kept flaunting its 'Delhi model' which was far from impressive.
"We have seen that their 'Aam Aadmi clinics' did not work here. What they had promised, they did not keep them," she said.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira said the AAP's loss in Delhi was a defeat of the "fake revolutionaries" who "literally went back on every promise of theirs like shunning VIP culture, Lokpal, Swaraj, and corruption."
Punjab BJP vice president and former MLA Arvind Khanna asserted that the people of Delhi had overwhelmingly rejected the AAP's "so-called development model."
The mandate signalled "the beginning of AAP's downfall in Punjab as well," he said.
Khanna stressed that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, India witnessed multi-faceted growth, making it essential for Punjab to elect a BJP-led government for real progress.
Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu said on X: "History rewritten in Delhi! After 27 years, the people have given BJP a resounding mandate, embracing PM @narendramodi's vision of Viksit Bharat. This victory is a testament to trust, development, and a brighter future. Thank you, Delhi."
He also alleged that the AAP was filled with "most corrupt leaders" and forebode a similar fate for the party in Punjab.
© 2025