Congress Ahead In Punjab, AAP Second, Akali And BJP Trail, Leads Show

New Delhi: The Congress is ahead in 7 seats in Punjab, while its closest rival Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 3 seats, according to the Election Commission’s leads. The BJP has not won any seat. The Shiromani Akali Dal got 1 seat.

The Congress and the AAP did not contest together in Punjab, which sends 13 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Both the parties are, however, partners in the national Opposition bloc INDIA.

In 2019, the Congress won 9 seats in Punjab. AAP 1, Akali Dal 2, and the BJP 2.

The Congress’s Amrinder Singh Raja Warring is leading in Ludhiana against BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu, according to the Election Commission.

Congress candidates were leading from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Gurdaspur, Patiala, and Ludhiana seats, and the AAP was ahead in Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Anandpur Sahib, the trends showed.

The party’s Sukhjinder Randhawa, who is the former deputy chief minister, was leading in Gurdaspur seat against his nearest rival BJP’s Dinesh Singh Babbu by 8,696 votes.

The border state of Sikh-dominated Punjab, where the BJP and its former ally Akali Dal going solo, is in a multi-cornered fight on all 13 parliamentary seats with 328 candidates in the fray. In 2019, the BJP in alliance with the Akali Dal had contested three Lok Sabha seats (Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur), while the latter contested the remaining 10 seats.

At that time, the state’s ruling Congress had won eight seats — Amritsar, Faridkot, Anandpur Sahib, Jalandhar, Khadoor Sahib, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala seats — while the Akali Dal won Bathinda and Ferozepur and the BJP Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur seats. AAP won from Sangrur.