Results a 'chance to remove weaknesses': Badal

With the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab putting up a poor show in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the results would give the party a "chance to remove weaknesses" and live up to public expectations.     

"We have taken it (losses to the Congress in these elections) as mid-term assessment to improve our performance in the state and work on eliminating our flaws," Badal said while addressing reporters here in the evening.      

Badal said the party would soon hold a meeting and try to identify the reasons behind the "slack" performance of the SAD-BJP alliance in the state. The coalition still has three years in power.      

The party will also ask the losing candidates to give explanations.      

"We are seized of the matter and each candidate will be asked to explain the reason for his defeat and those who had worked against the party will also be taken to the task," he said.

However, Badal applauded the role of his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in these elections.      

"I am satisfied with the efforts of the Sukhbir as he has done his best in these elections," he said.      

Badal claimed that Congress itself had never imagined that it would win such a number of seats. "But we respect the verdict of people," he added.      

Badal also appealed to all the parties in the state to shun "confrontation in politics" and urged them to work for the development of the state.