PTI 
       
CHANDIGARH, Feb 27: The Shiromani Akali Dal--Bharatiya Janata Party combine on Tuesday ousted the Congress from power in Punjab, winning 60 of the 107 seats results of which were declared and was leading in six constituencies.
 
The SAD has won 42 and was leading in five others, while the saffron party has won 18 and was leading in another constituency.
 
The Congress has won 42 and was leading in three, to make a total of 45 -- which was much less than its 62 seats five years back when it wrested power from the SAD-BJP alliance.
 
Five seats have gone to Independents. All other parties, including the Left combine of CPI and CPM, the splinter Akali groups, including the faction led by former IPS officer Simranjit Singh Mann, as also the BSP, were in for a total rout.
    
SAD President and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was declared elected from Lambi assembly constituency in Muktsar district.
 
He defeated his nearest rival Mahesh Inder Singh Badal of the Congress, who is also his first cousin, by 9187 votes, which is much less as compared to the margin of 23,929 votes in 2002 elections. The two were pitted against each other then for the first time.
 
SAD President Parkash Singh Badal has convened a joint meeting of SAD-BJP newly elected legislators here on Wednesday.
 
Amarinder Singh has resigned as chief minister following the defeat of the Congress. Governor SF Rodrigues has accepted his resignation, but told him to continue till further orders, an official spokesman said.
 
The BJP’s Jagdish Sahni won the Batala assembly seat by a narrow margin of 80 votes defeating sitting Congress legislator and former minister Ashwani Sekhri.
 
The election to the Beas assembly constituency in Amritsar district has been deferred to March 11 following the recent violence in the constituency.
 
If it was due to poor showing of the BJP in 2002, when the saffron party won only three of the 23 seats it contested, this time there has been a reversal of fortunes for it as it would be due to the BJP that SAD would forge ahead of the Congress.
 
In the election five years back when the Congress annexed power from the SAD-BJP alliance the party had under the leadership of Amarinder Singh won 62 seats. The SAD had won 41 and its alliance partner BJP got three seats. Two seats had gone to the CPI and remaining nine were won by Independents.