People rejected both BJP and Congress in bypolls, says Arvind Kejriwal after AAP wins in Gujarat and Punjab

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on 23 June said people are fed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat. The former chief minister said that people had rejected both the Congress and the BJP in the bypoll results announced on Monday.

AAP leader Gopal Italia won the Visavadar seat, while BJP's Rajendra Chavda bagged the Kadi seat on Monday, as counting for bypolls to the two constituencies in Gujarat concluded, officials said.

AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora also won the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab, defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu. AAP’s Sanjeev Arora, a sitting Rajya Sabha MP, won the Ludhiana West Legislative Assembly by 10,676 votes.

Kejriwal said the Ludhiana West results show that the people of Punjab are very happy with the government's work, and they have given more votes than in 2022.

"The people of Gujarat are now fed up with the BJP, and they are seeing hope in the Aam Aadmi Party," he said in a post on X in Hindi.

Thanking the people of Punjab and Gujarat, Kejriwal said people had rejected both the BJP and the Congress in these bypolls.

"Many congratulations to all of you on the splendid victory of Aam Aadmi Party in Visavadar seat of Gujarat and Ludhiana West seat of Punjab. Many congratulations and many thanks to the people of Gujarat and Punjab. In both places, the victory margin has been almost double as compared to the last election," Kejriwal said in a post on X in Hindi.

Both parties, Congress and the BJP, contested the elections together in both places. Both of them had the same objective - to defeat AAP. But people rejected both these parties in both places," he claimed in the post.

Celebrations erupted at the AAP headquarters in Delhi with party workers distributing laddoos to celebrate the twin victories.

The Congress-led UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath has won the Nilambur assembly by-poll in Kerala by 10,928 votes. The poll panel said Shoukath defeated M Swaraj, the candidate of the ruling CPI(M), on Monday.

The Trinamool Congress was leading by over 50,000 votes in the by-election to the Kaliganj assembly seat in West Bengal's Nadia district even as counting for the last round was underway.