Chandigarh: With SAD-BJP alliance retaining power in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal has called a meeting of the party's newly-elected legislators on March 8.

The newly-elected MLAs of the party would meet at 10 am in Chandigarh on March 8 while the party's core committee would meet at 6 pm on the same day, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said.

Bucking the anti-incumbency trend, the SAD (Badal) won 56 seats while its alliance partner BJP got 12 seats, taking the combine's tally to 68 in the 117-member Assembly in the results declared today.

The Congress, which was banking on anti-incumbency factor to ride to power, won only 46 seats, only marginally higher than the 42 it got last time. Three others were won by independents.

PTI