With the Aam Aadmi Party looking set for a clean sweep in the Punjab assembly polls, its leader Raghav Chadha on Thursday said the party will emerge as the national and natural replacement of the Congress in the coming days. "In the coming days AAP will become a national force...the party will emerge as the national and natural replacement of Congress," Chadha said while addressing party workers at a rented accommodation of the party's chief ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur.

The entire country is looking up to the Arvind Kejriwal model of governance and the "people of Punjab swept the state with 'broom' (AAP symbol)," he said. "The era of traditional parties SAD and Congress has ended in Punjab and now the AAP will give a clean and honest government," the AAP state affairs co-incharge said.

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He lambasted political opponents for running a "negative campaign" against the AAP by calling its leader Arvind Kejriwal a "terrorist". However, Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister and AAP national convenor, gave a positive agenda and the result is before people, he added. "When a common person decides to enter politics and cleanse the system no politician can be secure about his position," he said referring to the AAP's performance.

"We will give clean and honest politics to Punjab," he said, adding that the AAP would give a progressive government to Punjab. The Aam Aadmi Party appeared to be heading for a clean sweep in Punjab having taken a lead in 88 of the 117 assembly seats after initial rounds of counting of votes on Thursday, with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal and former CM Amarinder Singh among the heavyweights who were trailing.

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An eerie silence descended at incumbent Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's residence in Chandigarh and at the ancestral house of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal after their parties stared at defeat.

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First Published:Mar 10, 2022 2:06 PM IST