Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh onWednesday hailed the Congress party’s spectacular victory in the statemunicipal polls as not just a validation of his government’sdevelopment-oriented policies and programmes but also a total rejection of theanti-people actions of the major opposition parties, namely SAD, AAP and BJP.
Congratulating Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, aswell as all MLAs, members and workers of the party, for the sweeping victory inthe civic polls, the results of which were declared today, the Chief Ministersaid the people of the state had clearly and unequivocally denounced thedivisive, undemocratic, unconstitutional and regressive agendas of the threeparties. He thanked and congratulated the people for defeating the negative andvicious forces that are out to ruin Punjab and its future.
The first major polls to be held in Punjab since theenactment of the draconian Farm Laws had also underscored people’s angst withthe BJP, which was responsible for the anti-farmer legislation with the activesupport of its former ally, the SAD, and the collusion of ruling AAP in Delhi,Captain Amarinder noted. All these parties had shamelessly trampled the rights of the farmers, with the clear aim ofdestroying Punjab, he said, adding that the SAD’s and AAP’s subsequenttheatrics and crocodile tears for the farmers had failed to befool the voters,who had seen through the political gimmickry of these parties.
With the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not even a close second to theCongress and trailing even independent candidates in some wards, thepro-governance and pro-progress verdict of the urban voters of Punjab was aclear endorsement of their negation of their loathsome political ideologies,said the Chief Minister. It was a powerful message to these parties to keep outof Punjab, which was not ready to either forgive or forget the deceit and thetreachery to which the people of the state had been subjected by them, headded.
In the final count, the Congress had won 1199 of the 1815wards (municipal councils) and 281 of the 350 municipal corporation seats, withSAD trailing at 289 and 33, BJP at 38 and 20, and AAP at 57 and nine, while theremaining went largely to independents and BSP (K) and CPI winning in 13 and 12wards respectively. The swing in favour of the Congress in comparison with the2015 municipal corporation elections in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Moga andPathankot districts is manifest in the fact that from 11 seats back then, theparty’s tally has improved to a whopping 149 now. Similarly, in the wards, from356 in 2015, the Congress score now has gone up to 1480.
“With these results, all these parties have got aforetaste of things to come in the Assembly elections, due just a year fromnow,” said Captain Amarinder. The drumming that SAD, BJP and AAP have receivedin these civic polls is just the tip of the iceberg, and all three are set tobe wiped out of Punjab’s political arena, and subsequently from the nation’spolitical landscape, in the months ahead, he added.