Congress leading in seven seats in Punjab, say polling trends

India- Congress leading in seven seats in Punjab, say polling trends Chandigarh, June 4 (IANS) With the counting of votes for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab is underway on Tuesday, initial polling trends indicated the main Congress in the state is leading in seven seats, while the state-ruling AAP is ahead in three and the Shiromani Akali Dal on its traditional seat Bathinda. Two Independent candidates have been consistently leading since the first round. They are jailed Sikh radical Amritpal Singh, head of ‘Waris Punjab De’ who is locked in an Assam jail under the National Security Act, is contesting from Khadoor Sahib, while Sarabjit Singh, the son of one of the assassins of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who is in fray from Faridkot (reserved). They evoked a “radical” wave. As per the Election Commission of India, the biggest margin so far is of former Congress chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who is leading with 51,000 votes. The thinnest margin is of Congress candidate Sher Singh Ghubaya in Ferozepur. Congress’ Sukhjinder Randhawa is leading in Gurdaspur seat against BJP's Dinesh Singh Babbu. The party’s sitting MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla is ahead of AAP’s Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and BJP’s Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the diplomat-turned-politician who is making his electoral debut, in Amritsar. In Patiala, Dharamvira Gandhi of the Congress is leading. Congress state unit president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring is leading in Ludhiana against BJP’s Ravneet Singh Bittu. Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who held portfolios in both the Modi-led central governments, is leading to retain the politically significant Bathinda seat, also known as state’s cotton belt, for the fourth consecutive term. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leading from Hoshiarpur (reserved), Anandpur Sahib and Sangrur seats, the trends showed. The border state of Sikh-dominated Punjab, where the BJP and its former ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) going solo, is heading for a multi-cornered fight on all 13 parliamentary seats with 328 candidates in the fray. In 2019, the BJP in alliance with the Akali Dal had contested three Lok Sabha seats (Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur), while the latter contested the remaining 10 seats. At that time, the state ruling Congress had won eight seats -- Amritsar, Faridkot, Anandpur Sahib, Jalandhar, Khadoor Sahib, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala seats -- while the Akali Dal won Bathinda and Ferozepur and the BJP Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur seats. AAP won from Sangrur.

Source: IANS