BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh lost from Amritsar central assembly seat to Congress stalwart O P Soni.
much needed support to its ally SAD at the hustings as many of the party's many top guns tasted defeat.
BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh lost from Amritsar central assembly seat to Congress stalwart O P Soni.
Following the humiliating defeat, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said congratulated Congress President Amarinder Singh on his win and assured cooperation in issues related to the state's welfare.
Accepting the verdict of AAP's Punjab state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich said that the party will get feedback from the volunteers and analyse the reasons of party's defeat in state.
For a state infamous for its sex ratio, only six women candidates made their entry in Punjab Assembly by winning polls today, three each from Congress and AAP.
The state went to polls in single phase on February 4 and recorded 78.60 per cent polling against 78.57 per cent in the 2012 polls. 1,145 candidates had jumped into the fray, 81 of whom were women and one transgender.
Compared with its performance five years back, the Congress' votes share declined by 1.61 per cent to 38.5 per cent this time from 40.11 per cent it had secured in 2012.
However, the party got more seats as the contest was a genuinely triangular one this time with AAP making significant gains.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) saw a vote share decline of 9.45 per cent polling 25.3 per cent votes as compared with 34.75 per cent five years back. Its seat tally declined to 15 from 56 last time.
The BJP too had a lesser share in terms of vote percentage as compared to 2012 assembly elections. The vote share declined to 5.3 per cent - a decline of 1.83 per cent from the 2012 poll share of 7.13 per cent.
It was the new entrant Arvind Kejriwal led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which played spoilsport for the two traditional contenders - ruling SAD-BJP alliance and Congress - as far as vote share is concerned.
Contesting the Punjab state elections for the first time, AAP polled 23.8 per cent of the total votes of 1.94 Crore out of which 78.60 per cent had cast their votes.
The victory in Punjab came as a boost to the Congress as the party has not tasted much electoral success after losing the 2014 parliamentary election.
The victory for Congress came when its chief ministerial candidate and state unit's chief Capt Amarinder Singh turned 75 today, also becoming the longest living scion of the erstwhile Patiala princely state.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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