Punjab Presents Hope for Congress as Vote Share Improves to 40%

Chandigarh: The vote share of the ruling Congress in Punjab jumped to 40 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which it won eight out of total 13 parliamentary seats in the state.

The vote share of the Aam Aadmi Party which could manage to win just one seat, nosedived from 24 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 7.38 per cent in the present elections.

The Shiromani Akali Dal's vote share also rose to 27.45 per cent despite the party winning only two seats, Ferozepur and Bathinda, out of 10 it contested.

The BJP, which won Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur seats, also witnessed an increase in its vote share to 9.63 per cent, as per the Election Commission data.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party's vote share was 33.10 per cent and the SAD's 26.30 per cent. The vote share of AAP and the BJP stood at 24.40 and 8.70 per cent respectively.

Another surprise in the elections was the Bahujan Samaj Party getting 3.49 per cent of the polled votes. BSP candidates who contested from Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar constituencies managed to get more than one lakh votes in each segment.

The Congress romped home to an impressive victory, winning eight parliamentary constituencies out of 13, surprising both the SAD-BJP combine and the Aam Aadmi Party which won four and one seats respectively.

Prominent among the winners included SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, former Union ministers Manish Tewari and Preneet Kaur, and Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Major upsets in the poll outcome were defeats of Union minister and BJP nominee Hardeep Singh Puri, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and SAD candidate Prem Singh Chandumajra.

The Congress improved its seat tally from three in 2014 to eight now. It had won Gurdaspur in a bypoll in 2017.

The Aam Aadmi Party was almost routed from Punjab, winning sole seat of Sangrur out of 13 it contested. The AAP had surprised many in 2014 Lok Sabha polls when it won four seats in Punjab.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while the SAD-BJP combine had won six seats, the AAP and Congress had bagged four and three seats respectively.