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| SAD-BJP close to grabbing power in Punjab | | |
CHANDIGARH, FEB 27
The SAD-BJP combine appears set to grab power in the 117-member Punjab Assembly having won 45 seats and were leading in 20 others.
SAD has won 31 and was leading on 15 and its ally BJP had won 14 and was leading in five constituencies. Results of 83 constituencies have been declared so far.
The ruling Congress has won 33 seats so far - two more than that of the SAD. The party was leading on 13 other seats. Independents have won the remaining five seats.
Election to the Beas Assembly constituency in Amritsar district has been deferred to March 11 following the recent violence in the constituency.
If it was due to poor showing of the BJP five years back in 2002, when the saffron party won only three of the 23 seats it contested, this time there has been a reversal of fortunes for it as it would be due to the BJP that SAD would forge ahead of the Congress.
In the election five years back when the Congress annexed power from the SAD-BJP alliance, the party had under the leadership of Amarinder Singh won 62 seats. SAD had won 41 and its alliance partner BJP got just three seats. Two seats had gone to CPI and remaining nine were won by Independents.
Accepting defeat Amarinder resigned this afternoon as Chief Minister of Punjab. He has been asked by Governor S F R Rodrigues to continue till further orders.
All other parties, including the left combine of CPI and CPM as also the BSP were heading for a total rout.
The key Congress winners include Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, (Patiala Town) his deputy Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra), Amarjit Singh Samra (Nakodar), Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Lal Singh (Dakala), Kuldeep Bhattal, a brother of deputy chief minister (Dhanoula) Lal Singh (Dakala) and Ripjit Singh Brar, (Kot Kapura), a brother of senior Congress leader Jagmeet Singh Brar.
Punjab Congress president Shamsher Singh Dullo (Khanna, Reserved) and a number of ministers and senior Congress leaders including Mohinder Singh Kaypee, (Jalandhar South) daughter of former chief minister Beant Singh, Gurkanwal Kaur (Jalandhar Cantt), Rakesh Pandey (Ludhiana North), Animal Husbandry Minister Jagmohan Singh Kang (Morinda).
The SAD winners to make it to the state assembly include Gurdip Singh Bhullar (Nur Mahal), Ajit Singh Kohar (Lohian) and Sarabjit Singh Makkar (Adampur).
The prominent SAD losers include former SGPC president Jagir Kaur (Bholath), Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal's on Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal (Kum Kalan), Harmail Singh Tohra (Dakala), a son-in-law of former SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.
The winners from BJP include sitting MLA from Hoshiarpur Tikshan Sud, Manoranjan Kalia (Jalandhar Central), Bhagat Chunni Lal (Jalandhar South), Anil Joshi (Amritsar North), former Deputy Speaker Satpal Gosain (Ludhiana East) and Raj Khurana (Rajpura), who recently resigned form the ruling Congress and joined the saffron party.
Former Delhi Police Commissioner Pritam Singh Bhinder failed to capitalize on the sympathy factor following the recent death of his wife Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder, as he was defeated from the Gurdaspur constituency. |
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