Yesterday the election fiasco in Gujarat culminated with the BJP bagging a majority in the state by winning 99 seats, the Congress came a not so distant second by winning 77.
One party though which failed to mark its presence was the Aam Aadmi Party, which as per reports has lost deposits on all the 33 seats it contested in the state. The embarrassment for the party didn’t stop here and reports have even claimed that it has polled lower votes than even NOTA on a few of the seats.
AAP during the Gujarat elections decided to contest only 33 out of the total 182 seats, possibly in order to give themselves a higher chance of winning them. Things though didn’t work out as planned and the party lost deposits in all of them.
Things were so bad that on five seats, AAP candidates even polled votes lower than NOTA:
| Constituency | AAP Votes | NOTA Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Ankleshwar | 243 | 2732 |
| Botad | 361 | 1334 |
| Manjalpur | 282 | 2246 |
| Chhota Udaipur | 4551 | 5870 |
| Dasada | 1334 | 3796 |
The highest votes the party polled were in Chhota Udaipur where they bagged 4,551 votes, thereby finishing fourth.
Things though didn’t start so badly for the AAP, if its supremo Arvind Kejriwal was to be believed. His tweets from 2016 projected that the BJP was in a very dilapidated state in Gujarat and AAP was the one to benefit from it:
Gujarat fed up of Anandiben Patel’s corrupt mal-administration. Huge support for AAP. Sources- BJP will replace Anandiben wid Amit Shah
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 9, 2016
This does raise the question as to whether the party knew in advance about its poor performance and as a result decided to spread EVM tampering conspiracy theories:
Large numbers of Malfunctioning EVMs are a sign of a malfunctioning democracy under @BJP4India‘s rule of misgovernance. Let’s vow to show them that the nation belongs to its people and not a political party. Your vote counts! https://t.co/YNm3YBdLPb
— AAP Gujarat (@AAPGujarat) December 14, 2017
All the prince’s janeus and all the temple visits could not defeat the EVM magic of @AmitShah & @narendramodi.
Unless the whole country stands up for paper ballot, we are doomed.— Preeti Sharma Menon (@PreetiSMenon) December 18, 2017
Based on AAP’s performance, people might even ask as to whether the party’s dream of becoming a pan India force is all but dead.
