In victory, Kejriwal draws AAP-Cong line: ‘We are only ones fighting BJP, they are its puppets’

“This shows that the Congress has the same status in all states now — that of a puppet of the BJP attempting to help it win… People saw how in Delhi as well as Visavadar… how the Congress pulled out all stops to help the BJP win. The entire top leadership of the Congress is in the pocket of the BJP,” he alleged.

“An average Congress worker wants to defeat the BJP, but they see how the party’s top leadership is sitting in its pocket… To all the Congress workers — don’t have any hopes from the Congress of defeating the BJP. Only the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to save the states and this country from the BJP. All the best workers of the Congress should join the AAP,” he said.

The bypoll victories — both seats were held by AAP before they were vacated — come amid the party’s plans to contest the Bihar Assembly elections and the UP Zila Panchayat polls alone. Senior leaders have said they may go it alone in the UP Assembly elections as well.

Kejriwal said: “We have won both these seats with almost double the margin of vote share than in 2022. This is a very big indication that in Punjab, where our government is in place, people are very happy with its performance,” he said.

Kejriwal said the bypolls were a “semifinal for 2027”, ostensibly referring to the forthcoming polls in states including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The party’s victory in Gujarat, he said, similarly exhibited how “frustrated” the people of the state were with the BJP’s three-decade rule in the state.

Kejriwal added that the bypoll results also showed that there was a direct contest only between the AAP and the BJP as far as forthcoming elections were concerned.