Congress sweeps Punjab civic polls; farm legislation warmth singes Akalis, BJP

Amidst widespread help in Punjab for farmers agitating towards the brand new agricultural legal guidelines handed by the Centre, the ruling Congress Wednesday recorded a landslide victory within the civic physique elections. The occasion gained 1,399 of the two,165 municipal wards, and 6 of the eight municipal companies, with the results of the Mohali company postponed for Thursday.
The BJP’s hopes {that a} good efficiency within the city areas would ease some strain off it on the legal guidelines have been dashed. Having cut up from long-time ally Akali Dal, it misplaced even strongholds like Pathankot, Sujanpur, Batala and Abohar, profitable solely 49 wards. The Independents, who gained from 329 wards, completed second behind the Congress.
The Congress gained 1,128 of the 1,815 wards in municipal councils, and 271 of the 350 municipal company seats, with the Akali Dal trailing at 252 and 33 respectively, the BJP at 29 and 20, and the AAP at 53 and 9. The remaining went largely to Independents, with the BSP (Okay) and CPI choosing up 13 and 12 wards, respectively.
The polls held on February 14, to eight municipal companies and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, have been the primary elections within the state because the farm legal guidelines have been handed.
The outcomes are a giant increase for Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, with the elections seen as “semi-finals” for the Assembly polls due early subsequent 12 months. Singh has walked a tightrope over the legal guidelines, supporting the farmers whereas making an attempt to resolve the impasse over their calls for. The CM hailed the outcomes as a validation of his authorities’s “development-oriented policies and programmes” and a rejection of the Opposition’s “anti-people actions”. “All these parties shamelessly trampled the rights of farmers, with the clear aim of destroying Punjab,” he stated, including that the Akalis’ and AAP’s “crocodile tears” for farmers had didn’t idiot voters. “With these results, all these parties have got a foretaste of the things to come in the Assembly elections.”
Soon after the outcomes, PPCC president Sunil Kumar Jakhar gave the slogan ‘Captain for 2022’. “He (Amarinder) has proved that he is the only Captain who can steer the ship of the state in turbulent waters,” Jakhar stated.

Finance Minister Manpreet Badal tweeted, “History has been made. Bathinda will get a Congress Mayor for the first time in 53 years.” The Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Badal is the sitting MP from Bathinda.
The outcomes confirmed that the anger towards the farm legal guidelines continues to singe the Akali Dal regardless of it severing its ties with the BJP and giving up a Union Cabinet berth. In a written assertion, occasion spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema claimed the Congress win was because of “State sponsored repression”. “It seems the civil machinery and the Punjab Police have won the day for the Congress along with equal help from the State Election Commission(SEC). Nomination papers of more than 500 SAD candidates alone were rejected along with a couple of hundred of other parties.”
Dinesh Kumar, the organisational secretary of the BJP, stated polls shouldn’t have been held at a time when BJP candidates couldn’t even marketing campaign freely. Kumar denied the outcomes have been a pointer to the Vidhan Sabha polls, whereas stressing that its tally was only a notch decrease than that of the AAP, the principle opposition.
AAP MLA and Leader of Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema stated the occasion welcomes the “fatwa” issued by the voters of Punjab, whereas including that the outcomes confirmed the occasion had considerably elevated its base in city areas, regardless of contesting its first native physique elections within the state.
The Congress holds a majority in 87 of the 109 municipal councils after the outcomes. A spokesperson stated it could have management finally over 102 municipal councils because the Independents in 15 civic our bodies have been with the Congress.
The Akali Dal retained citadels like Majithia, the yard of senior occasion chief Bikram Singh Majithia, however neither the occasion, nor the AAP or the BJP have been in a position to win a majority in any municipal company.
With the Mohali end result awaited, the one municipal company the place the Congress didn’t get a majority Wednesday was Moga.
The AAP didn’t win a single ward of the 15 in Bhawanigarh, part of the constituency of the occasion’s solely MP from Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, and of the 23 in AAP MLA Aman Arora’s Sunam seat. The AAP had despatched its Delhi face and Punjab co-incharge Raghav Chadha to marketing campaign vociferously.
Among the losers was former BJP minister Tikshan Sood’s spouse.