Assembly polls: Counting underway in Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal leading from Lambi

It was pushed to third position with just 18 seats behind AAP which won 20 seats. The Uttar Pradesh defeat highlights the woeful lack of organisation at the ground.

The much hyped and high voltage political drama is witnessing its climax today with Congress leading ahead of its rival parties SAD and AAP in the Punjab state election 2017.

Admitting that party was not prepared for the kind of drubbing it has faced in Goa, he said that he is expecting to gain at least 6% of total vote share that will enable AAP become a state party. It still managed a lead on 15 seats, with a almost 25% vote share – more than AAP’s.

Some in the Congress hope that the Punjab poll results will have a positive impact on the neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi, where the party was ousted from power in the last few years, in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Parting ways neither helped him nor AAP. One of the major factors that perhaps played against our party is that the xentral leadership of the party was not being informed of the ground reality by party leaders in the states.

The new legislators are scheduled to meet in the state capital tomorrow where obviously Capt Amarinder Singh would be elected as leader of the Congress Legislature Party but the question will remain about when will the new government will formally take oath. Although Sidhu’s first choice was AAP, his possible entry was not handled properly.

The exit polls had generally predicted a Congress victory, but on average there were doubts over whether the party would be able to reach the halfway mark of 59 in the 117-member Assembly.

Among the losers SAD-BJP ministers were Adarsh Pratap Singh Kairon, the son-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as well as BJP’s Surjit Kumar Jyani and Anil Joshi.

Allegations of money for tickets and infighting too affected the prospects of the party.

The AAP was confident. Many observers in Punjab see this as a victory of the Captain and his aggressive style of campaigning, bolstered by advice from Prashant Kishor rather than to the grand old party itself.

After a long silence as the results came in, Kejriwal accepted defeat via a tweet: “janta ka faisla sarr mathe me”. The party cadre has worked very hard.