Captain is 75, Cong 77

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 11 

Winning 77 of the 117 Assembly seats, just one short of a two-third majority, the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress today stormed to power in Punjab, riding a strong anti-incumbency wave against the SAD-BJP and warding off a fiery challenge by AAP. 

The PPCC chief, who turned 75 today, said he could not have got a better birthday gift. 

Capt Amarinder Singh has convened a meeting of party MLAs tomorrow to elect the leader of the Congress legislature party in the presence of party observers. After meeting the Governor to stake claim to form the government, he is likely to leave for Delhi to meet Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. With all three regions — Malwa, Majha and Doaba —- having sent Congress candidates to the Assembly, he would have to strike a fine balance while forming his Cabinet.

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The Congress put up its second-best performance in the state — it had won 87 seats in 1992. The party also won the byelection to the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat with GS Aujla defeating RS Chhina of the BJP by 1,99,189 votes. 

The SAD-BJP alliance was relegated to the third spot (18 seats) behind AAP in the state polls,  which emerged as the largest Opposition party with 20 seats. AAP’s ally Lok Insaaf Party, that contested five seats, won two. 

The BJP bagged three of the 23 seats it contested. The party tally in 2012 was 12. 

A beaming CM-designate Capt Amarinder Singh, said tackling the drug menace would be his government’s top priority. He announced that various promises made in the party manifesto would be implemented right away. 

Hitting out at SAD, Capt Amarinder blamed the party for “bringing the state down to its knees” and mocked AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, likening him to a “summer storm that had come and gone”. Capt Amarinder lost the Lambi seat to CM Parkash Singh Badal but won from Patiala, trouncing SAD's Gen (retd) JJ Singh whose deposit was forfeited. 

AAP had pinned high hopes on the Punjab polls, a state where it won four seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. It expected major gains in Malwa but was disappointed.