Punjab Election Results 2022: AAP wave sweeps Majha; party leads in 17 of 25 seats

GS Paul
Amritsar, March 10

Majha has spoken. Initial trends show it has given a decisive mandate to the Aam Aami Party.

Majha—a region that Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot districts constitute— sends 25 MLAs to the Vidhan Sabha. AAP could not win a single seat in 2017. This time around though it seems Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s frequent rounds in the region has paid off—the party’s leading in 9 of Amritsar’s 11 segments: five urban and four rural.

AAP appears to have eaten into rival Congress’s votes too—the latter had won 22 of Majha’s 25 seats in 2017 but was leading only in four this time around.

The real surprise however came from a seat where poll analysts had written off AAP: Amritsar East. AAP’s Jeevanjyot Kaur emerged as a dark horse in a race that was primarily seen as a two-cornered contest between two political behemoths—Shiromani Akali Dal’s Bikram Majithia and Congress party’s Navjot Sidhu.  Jeevanjyot Kaur led the race by 5,000 votes, and Sidhu and Majithia followed, in that order.

In Amritsar North, debutant Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, the former Inspector General of Punjab who made his political debut as an AAP candidate, got 47,987 votes at the end of eight rounds: 21,710 votes more than his nearest rival, SAD candidate Anil Joshi, a former minister, who got 26,277 votes.

In the Amritsar central constituency, Deputy Chief Minister Om Parkash Soni, a Congress candidate, was trailing behind AAP’s Ajay Gupta by 6,000 votes at the end of the sixth round of counting.

In Majitha, SAD’s Ganieve Kaur was ahead of her nearest rival, AAP’s Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lali Majithia, by 17,657 votes.

In Baba Bakala, Congress Santokh Singh Bhalaipur trailed behind AAP’s Dalbir Singh Tong by 4,011 votes at the end of the fourth round of counting.

Reports said AAP was also leading in South, Central, and West Amritsar segments, all of which are urban seats, and Jandiala, Attari, Baba Bakala, and Ajnala—rural seats—at the end of the seventh round.

In Rajasansi, Congress sitting MLA Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria is leading by a margin of 1,105 votes, followed by SAD’s Vir Singh Lopoke.

In Attari, AAP’s Jaswinder Singh was ahead of his nearest rival SAD’s Gulzar Singh Ranike by 12,327 votes at the end of the fourth round of counting.

Gurdaspur

AAP candidates were leading in four of Gurdaspur’s seven seats. AAP’s Shamsher Singh led in Dinanagar, Amarpal Singh in Hargobindpur, and Sher Singh (Sherry Kalsi) in Batala.

Of the Congress heavyweights, Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was leading the race in Dera Baba Nanak, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa in Fatehgarh Churian, and former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa in Kadian.

BJP’s state president Ashwani Kumar is leading in the Pathankot seat.

Tarn Taran

AAP’s candidates were also leading in all four of Tarn Taran’s seats —Tarn Taran, Khemkaran, Khadoor Sahib, and Patti.

AAP’s Kashmir Singh Sohal was ahead of her nearest rival, SAD’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu, by 7,675 votes in Tarn Taran. Sohal got 30,582 votes against Sandhu’s 22,917 at the end of the initial rounds of voting.

In Khadoor Sahib constituency, AAP’s Manjinder Singh Lalpura got 16,910 votes against SAD’s Ranjit Singh Brahampura’s 12,210 votes—a margin of 4,700 votes.

In Khemkaran, AAP’s Sarwan Singh Dhunn was leading with a margin of 8,157 votes against his nearest rival, SAD’s Virsa Singh Valtoha. Dhunn got 30,937 against SAD’s 22,780 votes.

In Patti, AAP’s Laljit Singh Bhullar got 17,213 votes, a 3,288-vote lead against his nearest rival, SAD’s Adesh Partap Singh Kairon (13,925 votes).