Two-time Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has lost the Patiala seat by a massive margin of 19,873 votes.
Singh was defeated by Aam Aadmi Party candidate Ajit Pal Singh Kohli.
The 79-year-old scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family had floated his own party — Punjab Lok Congress — following his unceremonious exit as the chief minister of the state.
He had later entered into an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) for contesting the February 20 assembly polls.
As per the Election Commission, Aam Aadmi Party is leading in 91 seats on the 117 seat Punjab Assembly by 12:55 pm, followed by Congress (17) and Shiromani Akali Dal (6).
Sidhu himself is trailing from the Amritsar East seat.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Jeevan Jyot Kaur is leading with 25,536 votes followed by Congress’s Navjot Singh Sidhu on 20,334 votes and Shiromani Akali Dal’s candidate Bikram Singh Majithia with 16,154 votes.
Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal is also trailing by a margin of 11,165 votes from Aam Aadmi Party’s Jagdeep Kamboj.
Incumbent Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is also trailing from both the seats he contested– from Bhadaur seat by a margin of 22,843 votes from AAP’s Labh Singh Ugoke and by 2,671 votes from Chamkaur Sahib.
As AAP wins Punjab, it will be the party’s maiden victory in the state and a vast improvement from its performance in the 2017 elections when it had finished second behind Congress.
Congress went into the polls, battling factionalism and anti-incumbency. The party changed its Chief Minister in September last year even as the party’s new state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu hinted about his own Chief Ministerial ambitions. Congress finally declared Charanjit Singh Channi as the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab, endorsing him for the Chief Ministerial face days before the polling on February 20.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which had broken off the alliance with the BJP over the three farm laws that were eventually repealed, tied up with Bahujan Samaj Party for the Assembly elections.
