Chandigarh: The Congress is leading in 66 seats in Punjab as of now, giving a major setback to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Another 59 seats are required to form the government.
The latest trends from Punjab show the SAD-BJP alliance leading in 27 seats while the AAP has bagged 23 seats in its kitty so far.
SAD’s Bikram Singh Majithia is leading from Majitha by 6,549 votes.
Congress’ Navjot Singh Sidhu is leading from Amritsar East seat while AAP’s Gurpreet Singh Ghughi is leading from Batala constituency.
Punjab Congress vice-president Sunil Jakhar is trailing from the Abohar constituency by 3,485 votes.
Sounding confident, Congress leader Harish Chaudhary asserted that the Congress would form the government with absolute majority in Punjab.
“People have entrusted their trust upon us. They are with us,” he told ANI.
Meanwhile, celebrations have begun outside the Congress’ office in Chandigarh.
The previous election, held in 2012, resulted in a majority of seats being won by ruling SAD-BJP and making Parkash Singh Badal as the Chief Minister of Punjab.
A Legislative Assembly election was held in Punjab on February 4 to elect the 117 members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly.
The voter turnout for the Punjab Assembly election was recorded at 78.6 percent.
The results of the election will be announced in a couple of hours. ANI