Counting
In picture: Election officials carry electronic voting machines (EVMs) as they arrive to count votes in the West Bengal Assembly elections, at a counting center in Kolkata, India May 19, 2016. [Representational image]Reuters file photo

Need to know:

  • Counting will take place for all 117 Assembly constituencies.
  • The polling percentage in Punjab, where elections were conducted on February 4, was 75 percent.
  • Counting is taking place across 54 centres in the state. 

Punjab Assembly election 2017 Leads and Results:

Party --> SAD + BJP Congress AAP+ Others Total
Results
 18 77 22 0 117 / 117

Punjab Assembly election 2012 results:

Party Seats
SAD+BJP 68
Congress 46
Others 3

Here are the live updates: 

8:30 pm IST: And so it ends! The Congress is the clear winner with 77 seats.

6:25 pm IST: Just one more seat and it will be full circle for the Congress after a decade!

4:55 pm IST: Rahul Gandhi is happy with the Congress' performance, and has contratulated party workers in the state.

4:05 pm IST: There is no stopping the Congress now...

3:20 pm IST: So the results from 98 seats are in, and we have little doubt over a Congress supremacy in the state. 

2:30 pm IST: So the BJP has already conceded defeat, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi contacting Captain Amarinder Singh. 

1:25 pm IST: The results of 26 seats are out, and the Congress is well into the lead. The AAP is second, and the SAD-BJP combine has just joined the scoreboard. 

1:10 pm: SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal has seen the writing on the wall. He will submit his resignation on Sunday.

12:55 pm IST: We have results of 15 seats now. The Congress leads with 12 seats, while the AAP has three. 

12:40 pm IST: Winners have been declared in six seats in Punjab. The Congress has won four of them, and the AAP has won two of them. 

12:30 pm IST: So Amarinder has won from Patiala. 

12:05 pm IST: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who joined the Congress before the elections, holds a press conference. He accuses the SAD-BJP combine of looting the state's riches. 

11:47 am IST: The Congress has won Jalandhar West, too.

11:35 am IST: So the first of the results are in from Punjab. EC gives Anadpur Sahib to the Congress!

Anandpur Sahib
In picture: congress candidate wins Anandpur Sahib.Screenshot

11:10 am IST: The EC official website, the Congress is leading in 65 seats, the SAD-BJP combine in 24, the AAP-LIP alliance in 27 and others in one seat. 

EC official website leads
In picture: The leads, according to the EC official website.Screenshot

10:20 am IST: And the leads now tell the story of a clean Congress victory, sans the SAD-BJP wipe-out promised by the exit polls. 

10:15 am IST: Looks like it's not all good news for the Congress. 

10:10 am IST: Congress members have already started celebrating in Punjab, but is it premature? We are still in the leads, and there are still chances that the Congress will fall short of the halfway mark of 59 and will have to look for an alliance partner in Punjab.

10 am IST: The leads take the Congress past the halfway mark of 59

9:55 am IST: According to the Election Commission official website, in counting till 9:45 am, more than 10,000 people have chosen the None Of The Above (NOTA) option out of the 14.74 lakh votes counted so far. 

9:50 am IST: The Congress is inching towards that halfway mark of 59.

9:40 am IST: The Congress is undeniably in the lead, but the BJP and the AAP are neck and neck. 

9:12 am IST: And the updates are comign thick and fast now!

9:10 am IST: The trends are just about starting to emerge!

9 am IST: Captain Amarinder Singh leads in Patiala. 

8:35 am IST: The Congress is taking early leads. It is ahead in three of the six on which information is out so far. The AAP is ahead in two, and the SAD+BJP is ahead in the last one.

Parkash Singh Badal is ahead of Captain Amarinder Singh in Lambi! The SAD man is leading in the constituency!

8:25 am IST: This is the current situation in Punjab.

8:06 am IST: And so it begins!

8 am IST: Counting in all five states — Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab — begins

7 am IST: Just one more hour to go. This state may be the only consolation the Congress will have when it comes to electoral results.

6 am IST: The Congress will be looking for a clean sweep by crossing the halfway mark of 59. However, if they come up short, they will need to look to independents or some team-changers for support.

5 am IST: The AAP will probably have its fingers crossed. If it wins here, as has been predicted by some exit polls, it should be a huge victory for Arvind Kejriwal, and Punjab could be the state from which the AAP spreads its sphere of political influence!

4 am IST: Barely four hours for the polls to start, and it should not take beyond late morning for trends to start emerging. Counting for all 117 seats should be over by late afternoon or early evening.

Punjab is all set to be one of the upsets for the BJP, with different exit polls predicting a win for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress. If everything goes along those lines, the SAD-BJP alliance will be reduced to single digits, in what could be a damning verdict against the SAD.

What will be more interesting to see, though, is how the AAP fares in this state. The party has been – ever since its victory in Delhi – eyeing to expand its political influence to other states. And Punjab is possibly the best place for it to start. After all, this is the only state from where the party has managed to get its people elected to the Lok Sabha.

What we will also have to watch out for is how low the vote share goes for the SAD-BJP alliance, and in which pockets. It should be a good indication of where the alliance needs to work when it comes to winning the next elections.

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