Boost for Cong eyeing to win next Assembly polls in 202
Reaffirming the Congress’ trust among Punjab voters, the ruling party on Wednesday captured six of the seven municipal corporations, the elections for which were held amid the farmers’ agitation, with the BJP finishing close to a complete wipeout.
The Congress won Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Batala, and Pathankot corporations, besides 106 of the total 109 municipal councils or nagar panchayats that went for polls on Sunday, registering 71 per cent voter turnout.
In Moga Corporation, the Congress though secured the highest 20 seats, it failed to secure majority. The result for Mohali Municipal Corporation would be declared on Thursday as the State’s poll panel had deferred the counting of votes for a day to conduct a repoll on two polling booths.
The election result has come as a boost for the Congress, which is also eyeing to win the Assembly elections due early next year, with Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh terming it as a “foretaste” of 2022 Assembly elections.
Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, elated over party’s performance, maintained, “This victory has further increased the party’s responsibility towards the State and its people, and party is initiating its campaign for next year Assembly polls. ‘Captainfor2022’ — the party’s mission under Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh is being launched today,” he declared.
Other Opposition parties — the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Aam Aadmi Party, and the BJP — failed to make a mark in the elections for the municipal corporations.
Independent candidates finished second by securing 20 per cent of the total seats. Of the more than 1,800 wards that went for poll, the SAD could secure just 252; 29 by BJP, 51 by AAP, and five by BSP.
The ruling party celebrated the victory in Bathinda, a known Akali citadel and SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s constituency. As the Congress won 43 wards and the SAD just seven, Punjab Finance Minister and Bathinda Urban MLA Manpreet Singh Badal said that Bathinda will now get its first Congress mayor in 53 years.
The Congress won 49 wards in Abohar, leaving just one for the Akali Dal. It bagged 41 wards in Hoshiarpur, letting the BJP, the AAP and independents split the difference. In Kapurthala, the Congress won 45 of the 50 wards and the Akalis got three. In Pathankot and Batala, it won 36 of the 50 wards in each corporation.
Earlier, the municipal corporations of Moga, Hoshiarpur, Bathinda and Pathankot were run by the SAD-BJP combine, when the two parties were allies and in power in the State. The elections to municipal corporations of Abohar, Batala and Kapurthala were held for the first time.
The election campaign was marred by stray clashes between rival party workers with Opposition leaders alleging that their candidates were being stopped from filing nomination papers.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal thanked party workers who he said emerged as the ‘’only challengers’’ to the “corrupt and incompetent Congress”.
“Our workers battled unprecedented repression, money bags & govt machinery & yet emerged as a force to reckon with. Writing on the wall: 2022 elections on – Congress gone (sic),” he tweeted.
AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema said that his party contested the civic polls in the State for the first time and would analyse its performance.
Thursday, 18 February 2021 | Monika Malik | Chandigarh
