CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Monday claimed that the Congress would get a majority in the Punjab Assembly elections and will form the next Government in the State.

While addressing a press conference he predicted that his party would win more than 65 Assembly seats. The results of the Assembly elections will be declared on Tuesday. "I think our party will get up to 70 seats. In any case we are going to form the next Government in Punjab," he asserted.
 
The counting for 116 seats will start at 8 am on Tuesday and the results would be declared by afternoon. The election to Beas Assembly segment, the 117th seat, will be held on March 11. The final position is likely to be clear by noon.
 
Explaining his prediction, Amarinder Singh said that the Congress would get over 45 of the 65 seats in the Malwa region, and the remaining 20 to 25 seats from the Majha and the Doaba belt. He said that for the first time his party would be scoring a major breakthrough in the Malwa belt. It is also for the first time that the farmers have turned away from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in a big way. We never expected that such a tremendous support would come to the Congress from the Malwa belt thereby peeling off the SAD votebank and resulting in the defeat of many of its bigwigs.
 
In reply to a question, Amarinder Singh said "the Congress is going to break the myth that no party can reurn to power for the second successive term". He then went on to cite the example of Delhi where the Congress won a second time in a row. "You see what happened in Delhi? Sheila Dixit has formed the Government for two consecutive terms. The same happened in Manipur and in several other States."
 
Replying to another question Amarinder Singh said that the Dera Sacha Sauda came forward on its own to vote for the Congress. "We welcome their decision. I tell you I am thankful to the Dera from the bottom of my heart that they supported our candidates and came out well in time to vote for us. Because of them the poll percentages have risen to 76 per cent," said Amrinder Singh.
 
"The other reason for the high percentage of voting was that the people, especially the youth, voted for us because of the future employment avenues that our Government would generate. It was the issue of development in the State during the past five years that have turned voters towards the Congress, especially youth and women, emphasised Amarinder Singh. The Punjab Chief Minister ended his news conference saying "wait for the results, you will see what will happen in Panj Garhain, Moga and Sardulgarh, from where senior SAD (B) leaders Gurdev Singh Badal, Tota Singh and Balwinder Singh Bhundar are contesting. All of them will be defeated ".