Loser always complains, says Badal to Cong

He, however, said there were complaints from a couple of places, adding, “it is but natural. It (the local polls) cannot be incident free.”

The Chief Minister also refuted charges that the State Election Commission, which conducted these polls, was not effective. “They changed many officers besides shifting many Returning Officers (following complaints from Congress and others,” he added.

He reiterated his allegation that the successive Congress governments at the Centre had discriminated against Punjab in various schemes.

“In the farm debt waiver scheme the state’s farmers will get a relief of Rs 986 crore against neighbouring Haryana’s relief of Rs 2,100 crore,” he added. Punjab gets just Rs 1.38 per cent of the total relief money of Rs 71,000 crore while Haryana gets a little more though the two states contribute 45 per cent of the food grains to the national poll, Badal said.

“Is this justice? Since we were good re-payers (of loan) we are being penalised,” he pointed out, adding he had approached the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for relief for state’s farmers.

“I have also talked to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar seeking a package for state’s farmers,” he said.