Cong leaders blame poll losses on AAP
Saturday, 05/07/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140705/punjab.htm#6
New Delhi : Congress leaders from Punjab and Chandigarh, who today met the AK Antony panel reviewing the party’s losses in the recent Lok Sabha elections, held the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) responsible for hurting the party's prospects in the poll.
“Had it not been for AAP, we would have won 12 seats in Punjab,” AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said after the meeting. He said they would have also won the Chandigarh seat but for AAP. Almost all leaders were of the opinion that AAP had taken away a huge chunk of Congress votes.
Arvind Kejriwal’s 18-month-old party won four seats in Punjab – Sangrur, Patiala, Faridkot and Fatehgarh Sahib. Former PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh, whose wife Preneet Kaur lost the Patiala seat to AAP’s Dharamvir Gandhi, is learnt to have submitted to the Antony committee an analysis of every seat in Punjab, revealing a shift from the Congress to AAP.
Punjab Congress state chief Partap Singh Bajwa was unable to retain his Gurdaspur seat. Congress’ seniormost general secretary Ambika Soni was defeated by SAD's Prem Singh Chandumajra by 30,000 votes. She is learnt to have told the leadership that she had lost owing to the use of the administrative machinery against her by the SAD-BJP government.
Speaking to The Tribune, Shakeel Ahmed said AAP was certainly a major reason for the Congress defeat in the state and that the party had failed to cash in on the anti-incumbency sentiment against the Akali-BJP government.
Among those who met the Antony panel were Amarinder Singh, Partap Bajwa and CLP Leader Sunil Jakhar.
