SAD-BJP will also win in 2017 election: Bhagat Chuni Lal

PHAGWARA: Senior BJP leader and Punjab cabinet minister Bhagat Chuni Lal today dismissed all the speculation about a hung house after 2017 Punjab Assembly polls and claimed that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance will once again form government in the state.

"The ruling alliance will get an absolute majority and will create a hat-trick by forming government in the state on the back of its record developmental work," Lal told reporters after addressing 'Mandal Sammelan' here.

Denying that there was any anti-incumbency factor against the ruling alliance, he claimed that development of hi-tech infrastructure and the development work undertaken by state government will not allow any such factor to be at play.

He also said that the emergence of new political outfits in Punjab will not have any impact on SAD-BJP combine and added that these "opportunistic outfits" would cut into each others vote share only.

"Kejriwal-led AAP have gone 'ulta-pulta' (topsy-turvy) in Punjab. It will take time for it to get 'sidha' (straighten-up). Navjot Sidhu, cricketer-turned-politician, lived in Mumbai but floated an outfit in Punjab.

"People of Punjab will not be taken for a ride by these opportunists and will enthrone Badal government again as SAD-BJP alone knows the pulse of Punjabis," he said.

To a query on swapping certain Assembly seats with the SAD, he said it was for the party high-command to decide on this.