Unlike the claims made by AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party is far from meeting its own expectations in the assembly elections. As per the latest trends, the party is on third position in Punjab and is yet to make any gains in Goa. In Punjab, Congress is leading on 62 seats in Punjab, while Akali-BJP combine and AAP are leading on 26 and 23 seats respectively. In Goa, Congress is leading at 9 seats closely followed by BJP at 7 seats. AAP has not made an inroad so far.
Before elections, AAP had exuded confidence of bagging close to 100 seats in Punjab and a clean sweep in Goa. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has previously stated that the poll results of March 11 will be a ‘huge surprise’ for the ‘so-called political pundits’.
Experts said the AAP, making its Goa elections debut, might have eroded votes of traditional rivals BJP and Congress. However, results are not in tandem with experts’ opinion. The forecast for the party in the exit polls ranged from zero to seven seats, though.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was lagging behind his Congress rival Dayanand Sopte after the first round of counting in the Mandrem assembly constituency in North Goa.
After counting of over 6,000 votes, Parsekar trailed by more than 1,000 votes. After one and half hour of counting, the Congress led in 8 of the 40 constituencies and the BJP in 7 while AAP is yet to make gains in any constituencies.
Parsekar was locked in a 7 cornered contest in his home constituency. It was widely speculated that BJP’s decision not to announce him as its chief ministerial candidate had weakened his hold over the North Goa constituency.
