Click to play videoNew Delhi: The stunning performance shown by the BJP helped the SAD-BJP alliance wrest power in Punjab and oust the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh led Congress.
In the current polls, the BJP contested 23 seats, winning a record 19, one more than it won in the 1997 elections in alliance with SAD. In the last polls the party had won in Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur and Ferozpur City. However, it lost the Garhshankar seat in a by poll.
The party's high profile candidate Navjot Singh Sidhu retained the Amritsar Parliamentary seat for the BJP defeating Finance Minister Surinder Singla.
Talking about the overwhelming performance of his party Sidhu said, “I thank those people who supported me in these bad times and I forgive those who spoke ill about me. We live in a democracy and people can make or break leaders. You have seen the changes yourself. I am now an MP and 8 MLAs have almost been elected from here.”
Navjot Singh Sidhu wins not just Amritsar, but the confidence to forgive his critics with the people's verdict, now in his favour.
Buoyed by the early lead, Sidhu was quoted by news agency UNI as saying that the people of Punjab have shown the door to ''arrogant ruler'' Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
"The people have smashed the arrogance of the arrogant king,'' said Sidhu was further quoted as saying.
The SAD-BJP is leading in 68 seats and the Congress in 34 in Punjab, which has a 117-member Assembly.
The party bagged all the four seats it contested in Gurdaspur district, three out of four in Hoshiarpur district, three out of four in Ferozepur, all three in Jalandhar City and two each in Amritsar and Ludhiana.
Raj Khurana, an expelled Congress MLA, who contested on the BJP ticket retained the Rajpura seat in Patiala district while Swarna Ram won the Phagwara (reserve) seat.
The other prominent winners of the party were its firebrand leader and state senior vice president Laxmi Kanta Chawla(Amritsar central), Master Mohal Lal (Pathankot), Manoranjan Kalia (Jalandhar Central), Satpal Gosian (Ludhiana East), Tiksham Sood and Sukhpal Singh Nannu both of whom retained their Hoshiarpur and Ferozpur City seats respectively.
With agency inputs
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