Congress’ back-to-back victory is a testimony to the massive support his party has received from the masses, said Captain Amarinder Singh. | Photo Credit: ANI

Chandigarh: The ruling Congress is heading towards a landslide victory in Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections in Punjab. Out of 113 Zila Parishad seats -- out of a total of 354 -- for which results have been declared, the Congress won 106, the BJP-Akali combine six and independents won one. The Aam Aadmi Party had not won a single seat.

Among prominent winners were former Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee President Bibi Jagjir Kaur's daughter Ranjit Kaur; Housing Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa's son Ravi Nandan Singh Bajwa; Congress legislator Ramanjit Sikki's son-in-law Maninderjit Singh Mani; and former Congress legislator Kawaljit Singh Lally's son Mehtab Singh, IANS reported.

In Patiala, the home constituency of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the Congress won 43 Panchayat Samiti seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal four. The Akalis, however, suffered a humiliating defeat in their home turf Muktsar. All six Zila Parishad seats in Ludhiana were won by the Congress.

The voting percentage was 58 per cent. There are 22 Zila Parishads and 150 Panchayat Samitis in the state and a total of 354 Zila Parishad and 2,900 Panchayat Samiti members will be elected.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh congratulated his party on their victory and said that the people had supported the positive development and rejected the "malicious campaign" spread by the Akalis’.

Blaming the previous SAD-BJP government for not doing anything for the people of Punjab, Singh said that this back-to-back victory for the Congress is a testimony to the massive support his party has received from the masses.