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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Union Minister for Law and Justice Arun Jaitley on Sunday admitted that the Bharatiya Janata Party did badly in Punjab assembly elections because the party had failed to rise to the expectations of the voters in urban areas.
Speaking to Star News, Jaitley said the party leaders had an inkling of what was coming when they went around campaigning in Punjab.
"When I went to the state for campaigning I could sense an anti-BJP feeling. The urban voters wanted to know why their electricity bills were going up," he said.
He complimented Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for putting up a good show despite the anti incumbency mood in the state.
"Since the Akali Dal has solid support in rural areas, they have managed to prove the pollsters wrong. If the Panthic Morcha not played spoilsport, the results would have been different," he said.
Senior BJP leader J P Mathur hinted that the party would have to review its relations with the Akali Dal.
"On many issues on which we feel very strongly, we had to go along with the Akali Dal because of our alliance," Mathur told rediff.com.
When asked about the defeat of BJP stalwart Balramji Das Tandon from Rajpura, he said: "It is not a question of Balramji Das Tandon alone. The whole party has done badly."
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