Parkash Singh Badal terms elections results as 'the last rites of the Congress as a party'

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today termed the results of Assembly elections in five states as "the last rites of the Congress as a political party".

"The final rituals of the last rites would be performed next year when Punjab goes to polls," the SAD leader said in a statement here.

"Another major lesson from these elections is that people of the country are favouring parties which have a strong federal ideology. That is why in both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, regional parties have performed strongly and the trend is certain to continue in Punjab," Badal said.

Badal leads a SAD-BJP alliance government in Punjab, which goes to polls next year.

The Chief Minister said these results have also "exploded the myth" of incumbency necessarily being a negative factor for parties in the government.

In Punjab, "massive and all round development" in rural and urban areas and poor-people friendly welfare policies have resulted in a strong "pro-incumbency wave", he claimed.

The Chief Minister said the Opposition parties in Punjab are destined to remain in opposition for a long time.

"Their mindset is anti-people because they believe people have punished them and rewarded the SAD-BJP with mass support. This vengeful attitude towards the people is going to ruin both the Congress and the AAP," he said.

"The AAP has been reduced to a non-entity after their fluke win in Delhi. They had lost heavily in the Lok Sabha poll and have never dared to put forward any claim on national scene after that. Their bubble in Punjab has also burst with a bang as was clear from their flop show (rally) in Chandigarh a few days ago," he said.

Badal said the election results also showed that peace, communal harmony and development still remain the principal agenda for the people.

"Where governments stick to this agenda, they are voted back. It was the same phenomenon in Punjab in 2012 and will be repeated in 2017," he said.