Unfulfilled poll promises led to Punjab Congress, SAD’s loss

Charanjit Singh Teja

Amritsar, March 10

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress shrunk to one seat each in the district. The Congress suffered a loss of nine seats as they had 10 MLAs from here in 2017. Only Rajasansi MLA Sukh Sarkaria was able to win this time. Residents had a great resentment over poor development of city and peripheries. South MLA Inderbir Bolaria got the third place as he failed to shift the dump even after promising to the residents of constituency. Similarly, the MLAs from rural constituencies didn’t get funds to recarpet the rural roads.

Some constituencies were suffered due to clash between Navjot Singh Sidhu and Capt Amarinder Singh as they didn’t get any fund for development. The Congress party failed to get any major project for the city during its tenure.

Jaswinder Singh, a political expert, said, “Non-performing CM and MLAs of the Congress and conflict between various groups of Congress are two major reasons behind the defeat of Congress”.

As compared to 2017 Assembly elections, SAD didn’t lost anything as they had only one seat in the district which was Majitha. The SAD repeated its victory from the Majitha constituency. But SAD was expecting revival as Amritsar had strong hold of Akali politics. The Sikh farmers used to the major vote bank of party.

“The desecration incidents during 2015, killings of Sikh youth during protest, drugs and poor law and order condition during 2007 to 2017 are still haunting. The SAD lost its base in the Sikh as well as farmer community after supporting BJP and farm laws,” said Kuljit Singh, a political expert.