Improving considerably on its performance in the 2002 assembly elections, in which it won just two seats in the border district of Ferozepur, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party combine came back with a vengeance by winning five out of the eight assembly seats; the Congress pocketed the remaining three seats.
However, the biggest setback for the Congress came from Jalalabad assembly constituency where sitting Congress legislator and state minister Hans Raj Jossan lost to Sher Singh of the SAD by a colossal margin of 44,129 votes.
On the other hand, the SAD-BJP got a jolt in Zira assembly segment, considered an Akali stronghold, where Naresh Kataria of the Congress defeated sitting Akali legislator Hari Singh Zira by a margin of 12,372 votes. Naresh Kataria polled 64,903 votes compared to 52,525 votes pocketed by Hari Singh Zira.
Sunil Jakhar of the Congress from Abohar and Gurmeet Singh Sodhi also of the same party from Guruharsahai, won with
comfortable margins, but others lost badly to the SAD-BJP combine.
Sunil Jakhar defeated his nearest rival Ram Kumar of the BJP by a margin of 17,201 votes while Gurmit Singh Sodhi defeated his nearest rival Paramjit Singh of the SAD by 18,574 votes. In Guruharsahai, two-time member of Parliament from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Mohan Singh Phalianwala, could manage only 18,914 votes.
In Fazilka, forest minister during the previous SAD-BJP regime, Surjit Kumar Jiyani, defeated sitting Congress legislator Mohinder Rinwa by a margin of 16,051 votes while in Ballauna constituency bordering Rajasthan, Gurtej Singh of the SAD
defeated sitting Congress legislator Prakash Bhatti by 14,634 votes. In Balluana, the Congress rebel and former minister Babu Ram got 13,213 votes which unsettled Congress equations.
In Ferozepore City, veteran Congress leader Balmukand Sharma suffered defeat at the hands of his BJP rival Sukhpal
Singh, who polled 61,333 votes compared to the 46,460 polled by Sharma, and won the seat with margin of 14,879 votes. The BJP has scored a hat-trick in this constituency.
In Ferozepore Cantonment, sitting Congress legislator Ravinder Singh Sandhu lost to Janmeja Singh of the SAD by a margin of 8505 votes. All other candidates lost their deposit here.
Akalis-BJP send Congress crashing in Punjab
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