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Punjab polls results: Amarinder Singh trailing in family bastion of Patiala
Punjab election results: Amarinder Singh had stepped down as the chief minister last year.
Amarinder Singh was trailing in the family bastion of Patiala in Punjab as the counting of votes began for the state elections on Thursday morning. The seasoned leader stepped down last year as the chief minister and then left the Congress, his party of decades, to form his own party - the Punjab Lok Congress. He is fighting the state elections in alliance with the BJP. The 79-year-old leader was trailing by thousands of votes in the second round of counting of votes. His shock exit from the Congress was one of the key moments as Punjab saw a lot of political turbulence. The veteran leader had strongly objected to the central government's farm laws that were later withdrawn. Amid differences with Congress, however, he threw another surprise by joining forces with the BJP.
Interestingly, his successor CS Channi is trailing from both the seats he is contesting - Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib. He was also the Congress's CM pick for this elections. The AAP, taking a dig at Channi, had said the Congress was fielding him from two seats for a face-saver.
The AAP has already zoomed past the half-way mark in early leads. This is the first state after Delhi where the party will form a government.
Punjab voted in a single phase on February 14.
