The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will hold a meeting to review the party's performance in the Punjab assembly elections, said the outgoing Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today.
Congratulating the Congress on its victory, Mr Badal said that his party will support the new government if it works in the interest of the people and the state. The Congress, which bagged 77 of the state's 117-member Assembly seats, decimated the Akali-BJP combine, who won just 18 seats.
"We will call a meeting of the party in which we will discuss the reasons (behind the defeat in the polls)," he told reporters after submitting his resignation to Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore in Chandigarh.
On the Sutlej-Yamuna-Link canal issue, he said that "not single drop of water" will be shared, as Punjab's economy depends on it.
Responding to a question on the Congress's resolve to wipe out drug menace from the state in four weeks, the outgoing Chief Minister said, "Whatever steps they take will come before you".
"The kind of development work we undertook, has never happened in the state. But if there was any deficiency or wrong propaganda launched against us, we will analyse these and then take corrective measures," said SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
He said that the SAD-BJP alliance lost the elections due to a drop in the vote share. The alliance received a 31 per cent vote share while the Congress and the AAP got 38 per cent and 23 per cent respectively, he added.
Sukhbir Singh Badal congratulated Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh on his win and said that the party will "watch" the new government closely.
