Punjab Youth Congress chief calls Chandigarh results eye opener as AAP wins maximum seats

Punjab Youth Congress President Brinder Singh Dhillon on Monday said the results of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was an eye-opener for the party. He said that going forward with conventional ways and taking win for granted will be an over-confidence. 

"Getting the highest vote share 29.79% and still coming third calls for introspection and finding out our fault lies," he said.

The Punjab Youth Congress leader said that the Chandigarh civic polls will not have much effect in Punaj stating that earlier Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide at the centre but Congress won Punjab convincingly. "The way Aam Aadmi Party is trying to showcase this as a trailer before Punjab elections exposes there mindset about the understanding of Punjabis," he said.

He said that it was a golden opportunity to wipe out BJP in Chandigarh but we lost. "We must not let this happen in Punjab, conventional ways of the campaign need to change, issues need to take centre stage over individuals, United campaign a must, rest is destiny," he said.

Assembly elections will take place in Punjab in early 2022. In 2017 polls, Congress had won 77 seats in the 117 member House, while AAP emerged as the second-largest party with 20 seats, while Akali Dal won 15 seats and BJP three.

Chandigarh civic polls

New entrant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 14 of 35 wards in the Chandigarh civic polls, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a win in 12 wards while Congress came third with eight seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal bagged one. However, Congress secured the highest vote share at 29.79%, followed by BJP at 29.30% and AAP at 27.08%.

AAP's Damanpreet Singh defeated BJP leader and current mayor Ravi Kant Sharma from ward no 17 by a margin of 828 votes. No party could achieve a simple majority. A party needs 19 votes to have its councillor elected as major.

In ward no 21, ex-mayor and BJP candidate Davesh Moudgil lost to AAP candidate Jasbir by 939 votes. Senior Congress leader Devinder Singh Babla's wife Harpreet Kaur Babla defeated BJP's Rashi Bhasin by a margin of 3,103 votes in ward no 10.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said that his party's victory in the civic polls is a sign of ensuing change in Punjab, where assembly polls will be held early next year. Congratulating winning candidates, he said that the people have chosen "honest politics", rejecting "corrupt politics" of its rival parties.

"The victory of Aam Aadmi Party in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation is a sign of ensuing change in Punjab. People of Chandigarh have today chosen honest politics of AAP, rejecting the corrupt politics," Kejriwal tweeted.