Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bad performance in polls held across the country was indication that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not come back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to reporters after Congress candidate for Shahkot bypoll, Hardev Singh Laddi defeated Shiromani Akali Dal’s Naib Singh Kohar by over 38,802 votes, the CM said the BJP’s bad performance was a clear sign of the mood of the people ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“PM Modi will not come back to power, it will be the Congress which will form the next government in India,”said Amarinder adding that current trends showed that the people’s enchantment with PM was history now.

Amarinder attributed this to the brazen violation of democratic principles by the BJP, which had lost all credibility in their desperation to grab power by hook or by crook.

Hailing the Congress victory in the Shahkot bypoll with which the party now has two-thirds majority in the Assembly, the CM said it was vindication of the state government’s people-centric policies, marking the total rejection of the negative, divisive and toxic politics of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and complete decimation of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Amarinder said SAD’s continuing string of defeats in Punjab showed that they had completely lost favour with the people, who were not willing to forget or forgive them for the miseries and harassment to which they had been subjected during the 10-year misrule of SAD-BJP combine.

He said AAP had completely lost the script and was no longer relevant in the country’s political arena.

Amarinder advised AAP, whose candidate won a mere 1900 votes in the bypoll, to pack its bags and leave Punjab instead of continuing to shame itself with such shocking electoral defeats.

Farm debt waiver for marginal and small farmers would be completed by November, and law and order would be maintained at all costs, Amarinder asserted.

The employment generation process was also well on track, with over 1.6 lakh youth already given jobs in the past one year, he said assuring implementation of his ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar’ promise in letter and in spirit.