Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday hailed the victory of the Congress in the State municipal polls as not just a validation of the State government's development-oriented policies and programmes, but also a "total rejection" of the "anti-people actions" of the major opposition parties - SAD, AAP and BJP.
Congratulating Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, as well as all the MLAs, members and party workers, for the stupendous performance, he said, "The people of the State have clearly and unequivocally denounced the divisive, undemocratic, unconstitutional and regressive agendas of the three parties."
Mr Singh thanked and congratulated the people for defeating the "negative and vicious forces that are out to ruin Punjab and its future".
"The first major polls to be held in Punjab since the enactment of the draconian farm laws also underscored people's angst with the BJP, which was responsible for the anti-farmer legislation with the active support of its former ally, the SAD, and the collusion of ruling AAP in Delhi," the chief minister alleged in a statement here.
"All these parties had shamelessly trampled on the rights of the farmers, with the clear aim of destroying Punjab," he said.
Mr Singh claimed that the subsequent theatrics and crocodile tears of SAD and AAP for the farmers had failed to befool the voters who had seen through the political gimmickry of these parties.
"With the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) not even coming a close second to the Congress and trailing even independent candidates in some wards, the pro-governance and pro-progress verdict of the urban voters of Punjab was a clear endorsement of their negation of loathsome political ideologies," the chief minister said.
"It is a powerful message to these parties to keep out of Punjab which is not ready to either forgive or forget the deceit and the treachery to which the people of the state were subjected by them," he added.
Touching upon the poll results, he said from the 2015 municipal corporation elections in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Moga and Pathankot districts the swing in Congress's favour is manifest in the fact that from 11 seats back then, the party's tally has improved to 149.
With these results, all these parties have got a taste of things to come in the assembly elections, due just a year from now, he said.
"The drumming that SAD, BJP and AAP have received in these civic polls is just the tip of the iceberg, and all three are set to be wiped out of Punjab's political arena, and subsequently from the nation's political landscape, in the months ahead," he claimed.
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 party won in Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Batala and Pathankot, in the civic polls held against the backdrop of the farmers' agitation.
The MCs of Moga, Hoshiarpur, Bathinda and Pathankot were ruled by the SAD-BJP combine when the two parties were allies. The elections to municipal corporations of Abohar, Batala and Kapurthala were held for the first time.
The ruling Congress has also won majority of the 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, said officials, adding the details would be known later.
The outcome comes as a boost for the Congress which has been backing the protest by farmers, a majority of them from Punjab and Haryana, against the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Congress is also eyeing a win in the Assembly elections which are just a year away.
The elections to the civic body which were to be held last year were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.