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SAD, not BJP, lost Punjab elections: Haryana minister Anil Vij
Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Wednesday asserted that it was Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) which has lost the elections in Punjab and not the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).
A day after Union minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the SAD-BJP combine’s drubbing in Punjab assembly elections, Haryana health minister Anil Vij on Wednesday asserted that it was SAD, not the BJP, which was responsible for their defeat.
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Talking to mediapersons here, he said the defeat should be attributed to the SAD, which was running the government, while the BJP was only a junior partner.
Also read | Video: Harsimrat Kaur Badal blames BJP for Punjab poll loss
Vij said that Harsimrat was not justified in blaming the BJP for the defeat.
On Tuesday, Vij had said the BJP would have won if it had contested the Punjab elections without alliance with the SAD. “It was mainly the Akali Dal government in Punjab. The BJP was hardly 10%. So you can’t call it BJP’s loss. I am sure if the BJP had contested independently in Punjab, we would have formed a government there,” he had said.
The Congress secured 77 out of 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly polls, making a strong comeback after a decade.
Also read | Despite video evidence, SAD’s Harsimrat Badal denies blaming BJP’s poor show for Punjab loss
