Amarinder hails Gurdaspur win

Monday, 16/10/2017

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=182047&boxid=58608&uid=&dat=2017-10-16

Chandigarh : Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday hailed the Congress win in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-poll as a “total rejection of the anti-people policies” of the BJP and its ally the SAD and said it underlines the “political annihilation” of the AAP.

The Gurdaspur result has once again shown that the Congress was on the path of revival across the country, he said. “The massive win for Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar shows the people’s complete denunciation of the corrupt and immoral BJP and SAD,” the chief minister said, adding that it also underlines the “political annihilation” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state. He said that it’s a victory for the Congress and the party’s policies and development agenda.The chief minister assured the people of Gurdaspur that every single promise made by the party will be fulfilled and development works will be fast-tracked.

Amarinder Singh said he was humbled by the faith reposed in the Congress candidate, who won by a margin of over 1.90 lakh votes over his nearest rival of BJP Swaran Salaria, and thanked the voters for their overwhelming love and support.

The over 1.93 lakh margin of victory has not only more than compensated for the 1.36 lakh vote defeat of Congress candidate Pratap Singh Bajwa against BJP’s Vinod Khanna in 2014 but has surpassed even the 1.51 lakh lead by which Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder (Congress) had won in 1980, he said.

“Jakhar’s victory comes as a strong rebuttal to the persistent Akali efforts and campaign of the past six months to undermine the work being done by his government in the state,” he added.

“For AAP, this election marks the end of its political ambitions in Punjab,” Amarinder Singh said, pointing out that the dissolution of the Pathankot and Gurdaspur units of AAP a day before the declaration of the results showed that the party had conceded defeat and accepted that it had completely failed to connect with the people of the state.

Dubbing the alleged moral bankruptcy of the BJP and the total failure of the party at the Centre as the key factors behind the crushing defeat of its candidate, Amarinder said the people wanted development, which only the Congress could give them.

“The people were completely aware of the welfare initiatives taken by the Congress government since taking over the state’s reins in March this year,” he said in a statement here.