Congress sweeps Punjab rural polls, Akalis down, AAP out

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The ruling Congress continued its winning streak in Punjab by sweeping elections to 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis, results of which were declared on Saturday.

For the Congress, the win means rebuilding its cadre at the grassroots level which could prove helpful in the General Election next year. Congress leaders attributed the win to “positive development”.

The Congress had armoured itself for the rural elections by releasing the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege and police firing incidents of 2015 and debating it in the Punjab assembly, a day before the polls were announced.

The report set the tone and tenor for the elections by pushing Akalis on the back foot in their own “Panthic” constituency. This was following indictment of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for police firing at Kotkapura and both Badal and son, Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, for Akal Takht pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a blasphemy case.

The Akalis lagged behind on Badal’s home turf of Lambi. But in Muktsar district’s Malout, SAD won 13 of 25 block samiti seats, more than Congress tally of eight. The Akalis also trumped the Congress in Majitha, Bikram Singh Majithia’s bastion, where 28 of 32 panchayat samiti zones and all four zones of zila parishad went to the Akalis.

The Akalis can take consolation in the fact that the slide of the principal opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continued with this election. The main Opposition party in the Punjab Assembly, AAP, that had fielded candidates in 30 per cent of the rural bodies, has won in 18 panchayat samiti zones.

AAP’s crisis has only deepened with a vertical split in its ranks after the rebellion of Sukhpal Khaira, who had opposed the move to contest these polls.

Bibi Jagir Kaur’s daughter wins

Akali Dal stalwart Bibi Jagir Kaur’s daughter Rajneet Kaur has won from Nangal Lubana zila parishad zone. Out of all the zones in Bholath and Kapurthala, Bibi’s daughter is the only SAD candidate to have won, while the remaining seats have been won by the Congress.

It is for the first time that Bibi had fielded her daughter in any election.

SAD (Amritsar) wins in Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib

Surprisingly, in Barnala’s Mehal Kalan zone, it was Simranjit Singh Mann-led SAD (Amritsar) that was victorious. The party also won the Fatehgarh Sahib Panchayat Samiti polls. The party has small pockets of influence in  Barnala, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib. It seems to have benefited immensely  from the “politics over sacrilege.”

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