Reacting to BJP’s debacle in the Punjab urban body polls, Congress said the ruling party at the Centre is estranged even from city voters following farmers’ protests and campaigns around it.

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal told BusinessLine that the result emphasises that people of Punjab trust the Congress and the leadership of Amarinder Singh. “In spite of a tough financial crisis we are going through, we were able to create the necessary infrastructure in the State. This result is very rewarding. We are just months away from the Assembly election. So in this background, the victory is all the more resonating,” he said.

Though the farmers’ issue was not the major campaign point for the urban body polls, the result is a message that urban voters are shifting away from BJP. “The BJP’s vote base is urban. This is for the first time that the Congress was winning such a huge number of seats in corporations. For example, Bathinda Corporation came to Congress after 53 years,” he said and added that people of Punjab do not accept injustice.

Poll results

The Congress won six municipal corporations and emerged as the largest party in the seventh, sweeping the urban body polls in Punjab on Wednesday. The Congress won in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Batala and Pathankot, in the civic polls held against the backdrop of the farmers’ agitation. In Moga, it needed victories in six more wards to control the municipal corporation. In Moga, where no political party has scored a majority, the support of independent candidates could be crucial.

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said people have rejected the “negative politics” of the BJP, SAD and AAP. “We contested on the development agenda. This will embolden our workers to work hard,” Jakhar told reporters.

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