Badal claims victory in Punjab polls

Chandigarh, Feb 13 (UNI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Parkash Singh Badal today thanked the Punjabis for ensuring free and fair polls by ''resisting every provocation from frustrated political opportunists''.

Claiming a sure shot victory for the SAD-BJP alliance, he said in a statement here that reports from every quarter indicated that the Punjabis had used their vote as a ''declaration of independence from repressive and corrupt forces''.

Claiming that Punjab had ''suffered for too long from politics of opportunism, bitterness and confrontation'' , he said that a new era of progress and prosperity would begin in Punjab now.

UNI