It was a reality check of sorts for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as its candidate Satinder Singh lost his security deposit in Haryana’s Adampur assembly bye-election.
However, the party is hopeful that the result is a one-off incident and will not have any effect on the bigger battle – the state assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
“The result of this bypoll will have zero effect on the Himachal and Gujarat elections. In fact, I feel there will be no effect in Haryana’s state assembly elections as well,” AAP’s national advisor and Haryana co-in-charge Anurag Dhanda told The New Indian.
Haryana is scheduled to go to assembly polls in 2024 and AAP leaders believe that the people of Adampur did not vote for a change of the system because there are just one and a half years left for the present government. The party hopes that people will vote for them in the 2024 elections for sure.
Terming the bye-election as a bipolar contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, Dhanda said, “It was a bipolar election between the BJP and Congress. The people did not vote for the change in the system. They are looking at the big picture. That’s why we are not shocked by the result.”
Despite the loss, AAP is confident that they will fill the vacuum left by the Congress in the state. “Yes, the vacuum is still there, and people want to give us a chance. We felt that during our campaign for the Adampur seat. You will see the change in the Haryana elections,” Dhanda said.
“This seat of Adampur has a history of bipolar elections. The security always gets deposited for the candidate who comes third in this seat. You can see this in the past 10 elections,” Dhanda added.
BJP’s Bhavya Bishnoi won the seat with a margin of over 16,000 votes over Congress’ Jai Prakash. Incidentally, Adampur is the bastion of the Bishnoi family.
Singh, while accepting defeat, said, “AAP contested the elections on issues like health and education. However, the BJP and Congress managed to consolidate the votes on the basis of caste and polarization.”
“People did not vote for development. But I have to accept it. One and a half years are left for this government. But people will vote for us for the change in 2024,” he added.