Jalandhar, December 18(Parteek Singh): The Municipal Corporation election results ring alarm bells for Aam Admi Party as it has been wiped out in Punjab civic polls. Punjab Vidhan Sabha opposition party failed to open its account in all the three Municipal Corporation Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala. Aam Aadmi Party may be performing the role of strong opposition in Vidhan Sabha, but on the ground, they have lost the support of people. As none of the candidates of broom party managed to claim even a single seat in urban civic bodies. Party only managed to bag one seat of Bholath Nagar Panchayat across the state out of 414 wards of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats, Bholath is the constituency of the leader of opposition Sukhpal Khaira.
The Party has failed to put up candidates on all seats of three municipal corporations. As AAP has fielded candidates on 62 of 85 seats in Amritsar, 43 of 80 seats in Jalandhar and 46 of 60 in Patiala.
AAP Doaba Zone President Paramjit Sachdeva blamed Congress for arbitrarily. He said the reason behind their failure is lack of funding and loopholes in the party system. He said that Congress has made up public mind that if any other party’s candidate wins then no grants or funds will be given to the city for development by the state government. Later he said, that NRIs did not play any role in these elections as these are local affairs. During assembly elections NRIs funded AAP and even they were physically present during the election campaign, but this time NRI help was not sought by the party.
Local bodies polls which were seen as a litmus test for all the three major players of Punjab politics have been outrightly swept by the ruling Congress. The most interesting fact is that people of Punjab have wiped out the prime opposition party in the state AAP. Now, this is a high time for AAP to bury the personal differences, hold a complete review to understand the party’s position.