Friday, 11 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Despite their consistent efforts to woo voters with several promises like free electricity, monthly unemployment allowance and monthly aid of Rs 1,000 to women above 18 years, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to win even a single seat in the general assembly elections 2022. Though the party leaders were not anticipating a clear win across the state, they did expect to get a few seats in order to help AAP to get recognised as a national party this year. As per the data provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the chief ministerial candidate from the party colonel (retd) Ajay Kothiyal could get a total of only 6,161 votes which is 10.33 per cent of total votes in his Gangotri constituency. Releasing a statement on Thursday evening after the vote counting, Kothiyal expressed his gratitude to the public and said he wholeheartedly accepts the mandate given by the people of Gangotri and Uttarakhand.
He said that the party is thankful to the public for their love and blessings to a new party in such a short time. He said, “For the first time in Uttarakhand, the issues of a common man were discussed and talked about in general assembly elections which shows a great strength of democracy.”
On the question of why AAP could not win even a single seat in the elections despite the party’s consistent claims of getting immense support from people, the state in-charge of the party, Dinesh Mohaniya told The Pioneer that the party started working in the state in the past two years and put all its efforts to reach to the public but could not achieve the goal to win seats. “We thought that people are ready for a change in a politically bipolar state but they probably weren’t. Our leaders, candidates, party workers and supporters worked very hard in this election and we respect that. Many of our candidates even got about 10,000 votes which is a big feat for us considering how Uttarakhand has always been a bipolar state,” said Mohaniya. He said that the election result does not change the aim of the party to work for people here and they will continue to work for Uttarakhand Navnirman. He said that the AAP participated in the elections and learned a lot from it and will utilise these experiences to do better in future.
On the question of whether the poor performance of the party in the state has deferred the party’s plan to attain a national political party status this year, Mohaniya said that it has certainly affected the party but all have put their efforts into the elections and the party will get the due recognition soon.
