New Delhi | AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday congratulated the party for the victory in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda Assembly seat and opening its account in a fifth state.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Mehraj Malik, a District Development Council (DDC) member, polled 23,228 votes against BJP's Gajay Singh Rana's 18,690 votes in the Doda assembly constituency.
In an interaction with Malik through video call, Kejriwal accepted his invitation to participate in a programme at Doda on October 10.
"Many congratulations on the grand victory of AAP candidate from Doda Mehraj Malik against the BJP. You fought the election very well. Congratulations to the entire party for having an MLA in the fifth state," Kejriwal said in a Hindi post on X.
Malik took his election certificate from the returning officer as Kejriwal watched on his phone and congratulated the newly elected party MLA.
Malik said he was inspired by Kejriwal and the work done by him in the national capital. He said Kejriwal who brought about change in Delhi was a "ray of hope" for Jammu and Kashmir and AAP will march forward in the state.
AAP contested seven seats out of 90 in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is ruling Punjab and Delhi, also has MLAs in Gujarat and Goa. It was granted the national party status last year.
In 2022, the Aam Aadmi Party made notable gains in the Gujarat Assembly elections, securing five seats.
In the same year, the party achieved a major political victory in Punjab, forming the government with a commanding win of 92 out of 117 seats.
Earlier, in 2020, AAP reinforced its stronghold in Delhi by winning 62 out of 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections.
After the party won its first seat in the Jammu and Kashmir polls, senior party leader Delhi Chief Minister Atishi asserted that Arvind Kejriwal's "revolution" has reached Jammu and Kashmir with the "fantastic win" of Malik.
Greeting Malik, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on X, "Under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, the caravan of Aam Aadmi Party is growing day by day... Now AAP has MLAs in five states of the country. Many congratulations to the entire leadership and workers"
Party leaders and workers celebrated the Doda win at the AAP headquarters near Mandi House here, distributing sweets and dancing to drum beats.
AAP, however, failed to make a mark in the Haryana assembly elections.
Chandigarh | The Haryana Assembly poll outcome has come as a blow to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which hoped to make a mark in the elections.
The party drew a blank so far with its senior vice president of the state unit Anurag Dhanda is among those set to suffer a big defeat. Dhanda, who contested from the Kalayat seat in the Kaithal district, was at the seventh position with Congress' Vikas Saharan leading by a margin of 13,419 votes.
No AAP nominee was in the contest in any of the 90 assembly seats, as per the ECI data.
AAP, which has governments in Delhi and Punjab, did not have any electoral success in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.
AAP contested the assembly polls solo after talks with the Congress for stitching an alliance could not fructify.
During his poll campaigns, party national convener Arvind Kejriwal said that had he been released from jail three to four months back, his party would have formed its government in the state after the polls.
"Whatever government is formed in Haryana, it will be formed with the support of the Aam Aadmi Party," he claimed.
Kejriwal was released from Tihar jail on September 13 after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case linked to the alleged excise policy scam. He remained in jail for five months.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Kejriwal-led outfit, which was part of the INDIA bloc, contested in alliance with the Congress from the Kurukshetra parliamentary constituency. But its nomine Sushil Gupta, the party's state unit president and its 'best bet', lost to BJP's Naveen Jindal by around 29,000 votes.
In Haryana where caste equations play a key role in the electoral success of a political party, AAP asked people to give it a chance in the assembly polls as they have elected all major political parties one by one.
The party projected Kejriwal as 'Haryana ka laal' (son of Haryana) and sought votes in his name.
The party had announced several "guarantees", including free and round-the-clock electricity for domestic consumers, transformation of government schools and hospitals, free and good education, setting up of 'mohalla' clinics, and Rs 1,000 to women every month.
Though AAP was trying its luck in the 2024 assembly polls, its past poll record shows its dismal performance in Haryana.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it had unsuccessfully contested all the 10 parliamentary seats in the state.
In the 2019 parliamentary polls, AAP joined hands with the Jannayak Janta Party and fielded candidates from three seats -- Faridabad, Karnal and Ambala -- and they too lost.
In 2019 assembly polls, AAP contested 46 assembly seats and failed to register victory.