Chandigarh: The Congress won in all seven municipal corporations in the Punjab local body polls. The party bagged all the civic bodies for which the results were declared on Wednesday-- Moga, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Pathankot, Batala, and Bathinda.
A total of 9,222 candidates were in the fray for 2,302 wards.
Political observers say these polls just a year ahead of the Assembly elections are a 'semi-final' for the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government that is eyeing to repeat its victory against the backdrop of the farm laws that have generated a wave of anger against the BJP.
Speaking to media after the results, Congress MP from Amritsar, Gurjeet Singh Aujla said that this is the victory of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh who has done so much of development work in the last 4 years and people have expressed their faith in him.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, Congress spokesperson Meem Afzal said that Congress has been number one party in Punjab and will remain so.
He said that Congress party has done so much work at the ground level in the state whereas other parties did nothing.
Not describing the farmers' protest as a political issue, Afzal said, "We do not see this issue at all from election's point of view. We just do our works and the public decides on its own. We never try to take political mileage out of such movements."
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Sudesh Verma believes that the BJP did not lose the civic elections due to farmers' protest but because of the less political presence of the party in the state.
On the eve of the ballot count, a confident Chief Minister Amarinder Singh termed the allegations of the BJP and AAP on the rigging of civic polls as a typical case of crying foul in the face of their imminent defeat in the election.
The high octane civic body poll was the first ground level electoral battle after the farmers' agitation began over the centre's farm laws.
The political parties including ruling Congress and former ally of the BJP, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have pegged these civic polls as a 'referendum' on the farm laws.
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