New Delhi: Amid speculations about Aam Aadmi Party National Convener, Arvind Kejriwal's next move after the party's debacle in the Delhi Assembly elections, AAP MLAs from Punjab met Kejriwal at Kapurthala House in Delhi on Tuesday.
After the meeting, which lasted for about an hour, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and other leaders outright rejected the possibility of Kejriwal becoming the Chief Minister of Punjab and about 35 MLAs in Punjab breaking away and joining the Congress.
After the meeting, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann while talking to the media, said the party accepts the verdict of the people in the Delhi Assembly elections while praising the AAPs' 'Delhi model' of governance.
Mann said that Arvind Kejriwal thanked the leaders of Punjab for their "hard work in the Delhi Assembly elections". "Also, a strategy has been prepared that such a model of development will be prepared in Punjab, which will be presented by Aam Aadmi Party in the entire country. For this, Kejriwal has instructed all the MLAs and ministers to go to the area and work on the problems of the local people," he added.
ਕੌਮੀ ਕਨਵੀਨਰ ਅਰਵਿੰਦ ਕੇਜਰੀਵਾਲ ਜੀ ਨਾਲ ਮੀਟਿੰਗ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਕੈਬਨਿਟ ਦੇ ਸਾਥੀਆਂ ਨਾਲ ਮੀਡੀਆ ਦੇ ਰੂਹ-ਬ-ਰੂਹ, ਦਿੱਲੀ ਤੋਂ Live ....... राष्ट्रीय संयोजक अरविंद केजरीवाल जी के साथ मीटिंग के बाद कैबिनेट सहयोगियों के साथ मीडिया से बातचीत, दिल्ली से Live https://t.co/sxjO0suZVb
— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) February 11, 2025
Mann also hit back at Pratap Singh Bajwa over his claim about AAP's MLAs breaking away from the party. “I would ask Pratap Singh Bajwa to count how many MLAs they have in Delhi,” he said.
The Punjab CM also said that the law and order in the state was “better than most states”. “We have to put in extra effort being a border state, and we are doing that,” he added.
Punjab minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that Tuesday's was a routine meeting where a discussion was held on “how to speed up the work in Punjab in the coming two years”. “We will do more work and AAP will expand across the country," he said.
Punjab State AAP President Aman Arora while echoing Cheema, said that Kejriwal “calls us all from Punjab every 6-8 months and holds meetings”. “We have replicated the Delhi Model in Punjab. We discussed how we can take our model to the grassroots," he said.
After the meeting with AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that the Bhagwant Mann led AAP government aimed to "make Punjab a national model for governance and development".
"We had deliberations and planning for that... On our loss in Delhi, we all were of the opinion that all institutions were misused by the BJP. They have looted democracy... The people of Delhi have given us a duty as opposition. they haven't completely neglected us," he said.
Kejriwal's meeting with AAP MLAs from Punjab comes in the backdrop of the party's debacle in the recent Delhi Assembly Election 2025 in which the BJP registered a landslide victory winning 48 of the 70 seats while the AAP ended up being the runner up winning 22 seats. Congress drew a blank in the assembly elections for third time in a row.
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