As the Modi wave swept the nation once again, Punjab appears to be the only face-saver for the Congress. The party leads in eight of the 13 constituencies and is set to improve its tally from three in 2014.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made promising debut in 2014 winning 4 seats in Punjab, was leading only in one seat -- Sangrur -- represented by comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann. He leads by over 50,000 votes.
For the local BJP ally, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), things haven't turned out the way they would have wanted. It leads only in two seats – Bathinda and Ferozepur – where the Badal family is contesting.
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Union Cabinet Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is leading in Bathinda by 8035 votes when this report was published, while Sukhbir Badal, son of former Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal and husband of Harsimrat Kaur Badal, led by over 1 lakh votes in Ferozepur.
The saffron party managed to retain its strongholds in Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur which it won in 2014. Bollywood actor Sunny Deol was the party candidate for Gurdaspur. The seat was earlier represented by actor Vinod Khanna, the Bollywood who passed away in 2017. In Hoshiarpur, BJP leader Som Prakash was leading by 21,000 votes.
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who was contesting on a BJP ticket in the Amritsar constituency, is trailing by over 50,000 votes against Congress' Gurjeet Singh Aujla.
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With falling numbers in the Lok Sabha, the SAD may not get a cabinet berth.
