"Jury Is Out On AAP In Punjab": Union Minister To NDTV After BJP's Delhi Win

The jury is out on the Aam Aadmi Party's fate in the next Punjab election after what happened in Delhi today, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told NDTV after the BJP's stunning comeback in power in the national capital after a drought of 26 years.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the Punjab election in 2022.

Mr Kejriwal, who contested from the New Delhi seat, lost the election to BJP's Parvesh Verma.

The BJP won 48 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly. The AAP managed to get 22, a sharp fall from its sweep in the past, but still a sizable Opposition. The Congress did not win any seat for a third time.

"The Aam Aadmi Party, it's not that they have got 43 per cent of the vote [in Delhi]. They have not been decimated. But this was a model based on a control freak from the top. What is going to be the future of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi? What is going to be the impact of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab? The effect of the Delhi election? The jury is out on this one. I am not saying they got decimated," Mr Puri told NDTV today.

The BJP promised during the election campaign that if it won, it would continue the programmes which have been running under the AAP government. Mr Puri, however, said it does not mean the party will not start new programmes.

Explaining the nuances, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas told NDTV, "No, the freebies is not the Delhi model. Freebies constitute one part of the Delhi model. There is enough of Kejriwal which is not part of any model. The fact that the river [Yamuna] is polluted 500 times or 3,000 times more than the permissible limit, the fact that Delhiites breathe toxic air."

"There is a fundamental difference [with the AAP programmes]. As a central government, if we say that we promise a yojana, we will deliver on the yojana. But we had to make the statement that existing schemes will continue otherwise this guy [Mr Kejriwal] would have distorted the election for a third mandate," Mr Puri said.

"We said aapko jo world-class mohalla clinics mein milta hai, wo milta rahega. But hum corruption bandh kar denge (you will continue to get services in your world-class mohalla clinics, but we will remove corruption). Read the fine print," he added.

Mr Verma, who defeated Mr Kejriwal, said the party's leadership will decide who will be the next chief minister. "This is not just my victory, this is the victory of the people of Delhi who chose truth over lies, governance over gimmicks and development over deception. I humbly thank every voter who trusted me," he said.

He added under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda, they would work tirelessly to bring a "real change" in Delhi.