What future looks like for Arvind Kejriwal and AAP after Delhi drubbing

It changed into as soon as a bitter loss for the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) because it no longer handiest did no longer advance back to vitality in Delhi but quite a lot of its top leaders including chief Arvind Kejriwal had been additionally defeated by the BJP. Right here is the first time that Kejriwal lost from New Delhi, which he first received in 2013 by defeating the then CM Sheila Dikshit. What does the rout imply for him and his event?

learn extra

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal reacts on Delhi Assembly polls results. PTI

The Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) has suffered a well-known jolt in Delhi as voters rejected it after a decade in vitality. The crushing defeat modified into extra bitter with the drubbing of the event’s top leaders including AAP chief and frail Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and frail Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

For the AAP, the Delhi loss will bask in a ripple enact, with Kejriwal’s political future on the road. All eyes are additionally on Punjab, the best converse the put the AAP is now in vitality. But why?

Let’s rob a appreciate.

What Delhi loss manner for Arvind Kejriwal

The AAP has been diminished to honest 22 out of 70 seats in Delhi from 62 in 2020. But its vote portion of 43.57 per cent is honest 1.ninety 9 per cent within the back of the Bharatiya Janata Occasion’s (BJP).

No longer handiest has the AAP lost Delhi to the saffron event, but its chief Kejriwal additionally did no longer retain his seat. The AAP supremo changed into as soon as defeated by the BJP’s Parvesh Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes.

Sisodia, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Satyendar Jain and Somnath Bharti had been among the many opposite AAP bigwigs trounced by the BJP.

For Kejriwal, the Delhi Assembly election changed into as soon as no longer honest a political but a interior most fight. Right here is the first time Kejriwal has lost the elections from New Delhi after his first win against the then Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit of the Congress in 2013.

The AAP chief, whose event rose to vitality in Delhi for the first time in 2013 on an anti-corruption plank, changed into as soon as facing corruption charges. Kejriwal spent six months in penitentiary final 365 days in reference to an alleged excise policy scam.

He has been out on bail since September 2024. In January this 365 days, the Union Dwelling Ministry granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute Kejriwal under the anti-money laundering regulation within the Delhi liquor policy case. The CBI is additionally probing the case.

In accordance to Supreme Court docket lawyer Nipun Saxena, the minimal penitentiary term within the money laundering case is seven years if convicted, reported CNBC TV18. If Kejriwal had received from the New Delhi seat and later found guilty within the case, he would were disqualified from keeping space of job under the Illustration of the Americans Act, 1951.

Now, he may be handled as a total citizen and face the correct task. An FIR changed into as soon as lodged against the AAP chief in Kurukshetra honest no longer too long within the past over his remarks on the alleged “poisoning” of the Yamuna river water by the Haryana authorities.

A victory for Kejriwal would bask in reaffirmed his recognition and confirmed Delhi’s voters had sympathy for him amid his correct troubles.

The AAP’s rout and Kejriwal’s defeat bask in additionally difficulty the AAP chief’s interior most stamp. Kejriwal, who harped on the event’s “clean politics”, changed into as soon as mired by corruption allegations and the “Sheesh Mahal” controversy.

The BJP tried to corner the AAP over the costly renovation of the Chief Minister’s space when Kejriwal changed into as soon as in space of job, relating to it as Sheesh Mahal.

For Kejriwal, who crafted his image as a political leader rejecting opulence, this controversy changed into as soon as curiously perceived by the Delhi voters as a “image of hypocrisy”, as per a Moneycontrol memoir.

Earlier than resigning because the Delhi CM following his bail final September, Kejriwal had mentioned he would no longer return to the CM’s chair unless he gets the oldsters’s mandate as a “certificates of (his) honesty”, terming it as his “agnipariksha”.

The AAP chief has lost this trial by fire. The win in Delhi would were sweeter because the AAP would bask in returned to vitality within the nationwide capital for a fourth straight term. With this, Kejriwal would bask in change into the best opposition leader post-2014 to defeat the BJP three situations in a row.

Conceding defeat, Kejriwal has vowed to play the role of a optimistic opposition. “We did quite a lot of labor within the final decade… We improved, we did quite a lot of labor on bettering water availability and the infrastructure… But we is no longer going to give up… We is no longer going to honest be a optimistic opposition but will additionally enact social work, and lend a hand folks in our interior most potential. We did no longer advance into politics for vitality, we came to inspire the oldsters,” he mentioned in his first response after the Delhi election results.

pic.twitter.com/X2CKGVpE9G— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 8, 2025

Why spotlight is on Punjab

The AAP’s loss has keep the spotlight on Punjab. Kejriwal’s event would now bask in to point of interest on retaining its flock collectively.

AAP leaders admit the Delhi defeat will bask in repercussions in Punjab, the put the event’s authorities is led by CM Bhagwant Mann.

“The AAP has the same big-designate projects in both Delhi and Punjab, similar to free vitality and mohalla clinics. Kejriwal’s recognition in Delhi had created a the same enact in Punjab. It changed into as soon as after the AAP’s victories in Delhi that Punjab’s electorate voted for AAP within the 2022 Assembly elections. How we enact in Delhi without a doubt has an influence in Punjab,” an AAP leader in Punjab knowledgeable Indian Negate.

Leaders in Punjab judge Kejriwal would now point of interest on the converse, that will accelerate to polls in two years. There are concerns that this could invent a discord between him and Mann.

The Punjab Congress has sensed a risk in AAP’s Delhi rout, with speculations rising about an interior stand up in Kejriwal’s event and a risk of midterm elections.

Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa even claimed to Indian Negate that Kejriwal would now head to Punjab “to alter into CM of the converse”, predicting a vitality fight between the AAP chief and CM Mann. “There will be frequent defections amongst AAP MLAs in Punjab,” Bajwa asserted.

The BJP additionally believes the AAP’s drubbing in Delhi can bask in an influence in Punjab and plans to amplify its outreach to voters.

AAP sources knowledgeable the newspaper that the senior leadership would focus extra on Punjab, besides to other states – with the event’s nationwide ambitions aloof heading within the correct direction. “All is no longer lost. We aloof are a nationwide event and are working a authorities in Punjab with a extra than relaxed majority. The loss in Delhi is a risk to magnify into other states and consolidate our positions there,” a senior leader knowledgeable Indian Negate.

With inputs from businesses