Amid rout in north India, exit polls show Congress holds firm in Punjab

In 2014, the Congress, SAD and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won four seats each while the BJP won one in Punjab.

Exit polls have predicted a larger share of Lok Sabha seats for the Congress in Punjab which voted in the last phase of the elections on Sunday.

Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal standing in a queue to cast his vote in Chandigarh on Sunday, May 19, 2019. (ANI)

According to the India Today-Axis My India exit poll, Congress is tipped to get 8-9 seats, the BJP-SAD alliance 3-5 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 0-1 seats out of the 13 seats in the state.

The India TV exit poll gave the Congress 8 seats in Punjab, four to the SAD and one to the BJP. The AAP gets none.

In 2014, the Congress, SAD and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won four seats each while the BJP won one.

Punjab voted after a month-long campaign that had turned aggressive and shriller. Candidates preferred intensive method of door to door reach out to the voters and also depended on the social media.

The campaign saw high profile leaders addressing rallies and hitting the dusty lanes for road shows in the scorching heat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Cingress general secretary Prinyanka Gandhi Vadra and union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari were among those who campaigned in the state.

A total of 278 candidates including 22 women are in the in fray in Punjab.

Bollywood actor Sunny Deol is the BJP candidate from Gurdaspur.

Former Union minister Preneet Kaur wife for Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh is contesting from her home turf of Patiala for the fifth consecutive time.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which won four seats in 2014 general elections, lacked steam this time. The party has contested all 13 seats this time. Two of the party’s sitting MPs were re-nominated from Sangrur and Faridkot which they had won in 2014.

Standup comedian and MP Bhagwant Mann who is AAP president in the state is contesting from Sangrur. He managed to hook huge crowds to his sarcasm and wit laced campaign.

The poll campaign of Congress candidates revolved around the issue of desecration of religious scriptures particularly Guru Granth Sahib that began in 2015 during Akali-BJP government led by the Badals. The Akali-BJP candidates countered the Congress campaign by citing the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.

The Akali-BJP alliance tried to highlight that justice was done to the riot survivors during Narendra Modi government.

The Congress which is facing some anti-incumbency after two years in the government in the state, highlighted its debt waiver program for farmers and development but opponents pointed out that those were not what were promised in the manifesto.

Here is a look at exit poll numbers: