The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is headed for a decisive victory in Punjab, suggested the exit polls released on March 7. All major surveys predicted the party to cross the halfway majority-mark of 59 seats. The Congress, as per the exit polls, emerged a distant second.
The alliance of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) failed to sway the voter sentiment, as per the surveys. The coalition of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) struggled to cross single digits.
Here is what the major exit polls predict:
According to the India Today-My Axis survey, the party is likely to win 76-91 out of the 117 seats in the state, followed by the Congress which may bag 19-31 constituencies, the alliance SAD-BSP is expected to win 7-11 and the BJP-PLC coalition 1-4.
The Jan Ki Baat survey gave 60-84 seats to the AAP, followed by 18-31 for the Congress, 12-19 for SAD-BSP and 3-7 for the BJP-PLC.
According to the Today's Chanakya exit poll, the AAP is expected to win 100 out of the 117 seats, the Congress is likely to be reduced to 10, the SAD-BSP alliance 6 and the BJP-PLC coalition may bag 1 constituency.
The P-Marq survey predicted 62-70 seats for the AAP, 23-31 for the Congress, 16-24 for the SAD+ and 1-3 for BJP+.
The Veto survey predicted 70 seats for the AAP, 22 for the Congress, 19 for SAD+ and 5 for BJP+.
According to ETG Research exit poll, the AAP was likely to bag 70-75 seats, the Congress 27-33, the SAD+ 7-13 and the BJP+ 3-7.
The only exit poll which gave the edge to the Congress was released by CNX, which said the Congress is likely to win 49-59 seats, the AAP 27-37, SAD+20-30 and BP+2-6.
Follow live updates of the exit poll results of all 5 states
Punjab, which is one of the country's three states where the Congress is leading the government, went to polls in a single phase election held on February 20.
The state witnessed a multilateral contest, with the incumbent Congress being challenged by traditional rival Akali Dal which partnered with the Bahujan Samaj Party, the prime opposition AAP and the alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
In the 2017 assembly elections, the Congress, then led by Amarinder Singh, had stormed to power with a decisive two-third mandate. The party had won 77 out of the 117 seats, whereas, the AAP had bagged 20 constituencies. The SAD, which was then contesting in alliance with the BJP, was reduced to 15 seats. The BJP had won only 3 assembly segments.
Ahead of the 2022 polls, the ruling Congress witnessed an intense intra-party feud within its Punjab unit, which led to the ouster of Amarinder Singh as the chief minister in September last year.
Following Singh's exit, Charanjit Singh Channi - arguably the party's tallest Dalit face in Punjab - was announced as the chief minister. Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was announced as the Congress' unit chief in July last year, made a bid to be announced as the CM candidate in run-up to the polls.
After weeks of deliberation, the Congress had, on February 6, announced that Channi would continue to lead the state government if the party is re-elected to power.
The opinion polls released before the elections showed the state was largely headed towards a fractured mandate, with the AAP likely to emerge as the single-largest party. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party had announced its lone parliamentarian from Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, as the chief ministerial candidate.
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