The Hindu : National : Akali-BJP combine sweeps Punjab

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Friday, May 14, 2004

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National

Akali-BJP combine sweeps Punjab

By Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH, MAY 13. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, swept 11 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats for which polling was conducted on May 10. The Congress, which had returned eight members in the previous House, could manage just two.

According to the final tally provided by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the Akali-BJP alliance candidates recorded major victories at most places, while the sitting MP from Patiala, Preneet Kaur, wife of the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, retained her seat with a margin of 23,600 votes over her challenger, Kanwaljit Singh, of the SAD. She had won the seat by 90,000 votes in 1999.

The biggest victory margin was returned from Faridkot by Sukhbir Singh, son of the SAD chief, Parkash Singh Badal, polling 1.36-lakh votes more than his Congress rival, Karan Brar, who is the daughter-in-law of another former Chief Minister, H.S. Brar.

He was followed by the Indian cricket team's former opener, Navjot Sidhu, who, on the BJP ticket from Amritsar, trounced the Congress's old warhorse, R.L. Bhatia, by 1.11-lakh votes.

Similarly, the State president of the BJP, Avinash Rai Khanna, defeated Darshan Singh Mattu of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-Congress combine by 1.04-lakh votes to pocket Hoshiarpur. Naresh Gujral, son of the former Prime Minister, I.K. Gujral, lost to Rana Gurjit Singh of the Congress from the Jalandhar constituency by over 33,000 votes.

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