Chandigarh: The counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections 2019 was held in Punjab yesterday. Congress won 8 seats, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and its ally Bhartiya Janta Party bagged 2 seats each while the Aam Aadmi Party manage to save 1 seat. In 2014 Congress had won only 3 seats and its tally had rose to 4 after it won Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election in 2017. In previous (2014) elections SAD-B and AAP had bagged 4 seats each while BJP had won 2 seats at that time too, but it had lost one of these two was later to the Congress party in 2017 by-election after its Gurdaspur MP Vinod Khanna had died.

In 2014 Aam Aadmi Party was a fresh player in Punjab politics and it had surprised many by taking out large chunk of vote share. AAP’s vote share in 2014 was 24.5%. The sudden rise of party in Punjab politics had started to decline even before 2017 state assembly elections due to in-house fighting that further worsened after the state polls. As a result the party’s vote share in 2019 Lok Sabha elections came down to 7.4%. As compared to 2014 Lok Sabah elections, AAP has lost 17.1% of vote share in 2019.

While Aam Aadmi Party has lost its vote share, the Congress party, SAD (B), BJP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has gained it.

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In 2014 Congress party had lost 12.13% vote share. It had secured 33.2% votes in 2014 but the figure rose to 40.1% after yesterday’s counting. Congress gained 6.9% vote share in 2019 as compared to 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party had won just 3 seats in Punjab in 2014 but it managed to bag 8 seats after yesterday’s counting for Lok Sabha 2019.

In 2014 SAD (B) had lost 7.55% vote share as its’ figure was reduced to 26.30%. The figure rose to 27.4% yesterday with a gain of 1.1% as compared to 2014 Lok Sabha elections. SAD (B) had contested 10 seats in 2014 and 2019.

BJP, that had lost 1.36% vote share in 2014 when its vote share figure was 8.70%. It gained 0.93% as its figure after yesterday’s counting stands at 9.3%. BJP contested 3 seats in 2014 and 2019 in Punjab.

BSP too has gained vote share in 2019 elections as compared to 2014 elections. Party’s vote share in 2014 was 1.9% when it had contested all 13 seats in Punjab. In 2019 BSP contested only 3 seats but its overall vote share rose to 3.49%.

Overall scenario is that the Congress party has benefitted the most from Aam Aadmi Party’s vote share loss in Punjab.