Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is leading in Lambi assembly constituency, as per the trends. The 89-year-old is locked in a triangular contest with Punjab Congress Chief Capt. Amarinder Singh and journalist-turned-politician Jarnail Singh of the AAP in his pocket borough of Lambi.
The counting process was underway today for the 117 Assembly seats in Punjab which witnessed a triangular contest with the ruling SAD-BJP combine, the Congress and the AAP putting up a spirited fight.
54 counting centers have been established at 27 locations for the 117 Assembly constituencies in the state, an official spokesman said here.
He said that more than 14000 officials have been deputed in the counting centers across the state. Punjab could be in for a neck-and-neck fight between the Congress and the AAP while the ruling SAD-BJP may face a drubbing, according to pollsters.
However, the SAD-BJP alliance is confident of defying the pollsters “like in 2012”, when it proved the surveys wrong. An 89-year-old Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal claimed they would win 72 seats.
As for Congress, Amarinder Singh claimed it would win 65 seats and the AAP exuded confidence of bagging close to 100. The state went to polls in a single phase on February 4 and recorded 78.60 per cent polling against 78.57 per cent in the 2012 polls. 1,145 candidates are in the fray, 81 of whom are women and one transgender.
SAD contested 94 seats and its ally the BJP is 23. The Congress has contested all the seats.
