A day after the Congress swept the civic polls in three municipal corporations and 29 municipal councils in Punjab, the BJP victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls on Monday dampened spirits in the state’s ruling party.
Even the press conference to be addressed by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday was cancelled soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party started marching towards victory in both the states.
The Congress, which came to power in the state less than a year ago, won a majority of the seats in the three local bodies, wresting control from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine.
Earlier, citing the high voter turnout, Amarinder said the people of Punjab had once again shown their political maturity and courage in fighting the nefarious designs of the SAD-BJP combine and the Aam Aadmi Party.
He claimed both the parties had been wiped out into oblivion from the electoral landscape of the state.
He said the AAP had come to Punjab like a summer storm but was completely decimated, with no apparent hope of revival.
On Sunday, the Congress emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 municipal councils. Out of the 414 wards, Congress won in 267, SAD in 37, BJP in 15, AAP in just one and independents in 94.
The Congress swept the Patiala Corporation by winning 58 wards while the opposition parties failed to open their accounts.
In Jalandhar, the party won 66 wards while eight went to the BJP and four to the SAD. In Amritsar, the Congress won 69 wards and the SAD-BJP 12.
Soon after the Congress registered these resounding victories, the opposition
SAD accused the state election commission of playing into the hands of the ruling party.
According to an official spokesperson, polling was held amid tight security arrangements across the state. It was mostly peaceful, but marred by several incidents of violence that led to police lathi-charge in many Patiala wards.
Meanwhile, former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal felicitated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the BJP victories in Gujarat and HP. He described the results as a victory of vikas lehar (development movement) stared by the PM in the country.