The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) party appears to have lost a winning battle in Punjab, and the reasons are not difficult to assess. The party, which made its Punjab assembly polls debut, came in second. Punjab was the only state in the country from where the Arvind Kejriwal-led party had won four Lok Sabha seats mopping up a 24.4% vote share. The party was divided on a trust deficit between local AAP leaders and its high command in New Delhi, leading to the emergence of an “outsider-versus-insider” rhetoric. The party’s first manifesto showed a broom — its poll symbol — superimposed on an image of the Golden Temple.

Source: Hindustan Times March 12, 2017 11:15 UTC