All those who 'pretended' to contest LS polls from Punjab on sacrilege issue thrown out: SAD

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Tuesday said all those who "pretended" to contest Lok Sabha polls from Punjab on the issue of sacrilege were "thrown out by people, especially the Sikhs".

The party's core committee held a meeting here to analyse the results of the general election in the state.

A resolution passed at the meeting "noted with satisfaction that 'Akal Purakh' (almighty) responded positively to the prayer of SAD president Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal and decimated all those who committed or planned the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (in 2015)".

Taking names of a few political leaders, the resolution said, "All of them pretended to contest on the issue of sacrilege and all of them were thrown out by people, especially the Sikhs, and they lost their security deposits - a divine justice," said the resolution.

Other than the Congress, various political outfits had made the incidents of desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab in 2015 a poll issue and also targeted the Akali Dal on this.

While the Congress won eight of the 13 seats in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal and its ally BJP won two each and the AAP won one.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, a sitting MLA, won the Ferozepur seat, while outgoing Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal retained her Bathinda seat.

The SAD expressed "deep gratitude to the people of Punjab", saying the SAD-BJP alliance had "substantially increased its vote share to log 51 lakh votes and managed to take a lead in 35 assembly segments even as it was a close second in 16 seats".

"The party also thanked voters for the 7 per cent jump in the alliance vote share - from 30 per cent to 37 per cent. In fact the SAD is the only party to improve its vote share as the share of the Congress and the AAP actually fell significantly," the core committee said as per a party release here.

The party also congratulated Sukhbir Singh Badal and Harsimrat Kaur Badal for their victories.

In another resolution, the SAD described " backbreaking" the latest steep hike in the electricity tariff announced in Punjab.

"This is the first shock being delivered by the Amarinder government after the elections. I fear more will follow," the SAD chief said in a statement later.

Through another resolution, the party expressed "grave concern" concern over "growing incidents of rape and murder in the state like the one at Dhuri in Sangrur, in which a four-year-old child became a victim" of the government's alleged failure to control lawless elements.