Congress sweeps Punjab urban polls, CM says validation of policies

Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday hailed his Congress’ spectacular victory in the municipal polls as not just a validation of his government’s development-oriented policies but also a total rejection of the “anti-people” actions of the major opposition parties — the SAD, the AAP and the BJP. Congratulating state Congress President Sunil Jakhar, as well as all MLAs, members and workers of the party, for the sweeping victory in the civic polls, the results of which were declared on Wednesday, he said the people of the state had “clearly and unequivocally denounced the divisive, undemocratic, unconstitutional and regressive agendas” of the three parties. In the final count, the Congress won 1,199 of the 1,815 wards in municipal councils and 281 of the 350 municipal corporation seats, with Shiromani Akali Dal trailing at 289 and 33, the Bharatiya Janata Party at 38 and 20, and the Aam Aadmi Party at 57 and nine, respectively, while the remaining went largely to independents and the BSP (K) and the CPI winning in 13 and 12 wards, respectively. The swing in favour of the Congress in comparison with the 2015 municipal corporation elections in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Moga and Pathankot districts is manifest in the fact that from 11 seats back then, the party’s tally has improved to a whopping 149 now. Similarly, in the wards, from 356 in 2015, the Congress score now has gone up to 1,480. Amarinder Singh thanked and congratulated the people for defeating the “negative and vicious forces that are out to ruin Punjab and its future”. The first major polls to be held in Punjab since the enactment of the ‘draconian’ farm laws had also underscored people’s angst with the BJP, which was responsible for the anti-farmer legislation with the active support of its then ally, SAD, and the collusion of ruling AAP in Delhi, Amarinder Singh said. All these parties had “shamelessly trampled the rights of the farmers, with the clear aim of destroying Punjab”, he said, adding SAD’s and AAP’s “subsequent theatrics” for the farmers had failed to befool the voters, who had seen through the political gimmickry of these parties. With all three opposition parties not even a close second to the Congress and trailing even independent candidates in some wards, the “pro-governance and pro-progress verdict of the urban voters of Punjab was a clear endorsement of their negation of their loathsome political ideologies”, he contended. “It was a powerful message to these parties to keep out of Punjab, which was not ready to either forgive or forget the deceit and the treachery to which the people of the state had been subjected by them,” he added. “With these results, all these parties have got a foretaste of things to come in the assembly elections, due just a year from now,” Amarinder Singh told the media here.