Assembly polls: BJP leads in 4 states, AAP set to sweep Punjab

Story by  ATV | Posted by  sabir hussain • 2 Years ago
Representational image
Representational image

 

New Delhi:

In early trends, Bharatiya Janata Party has crossed the halfway mark, leading on 250 seats in the 403 Uttar Pradesh Assembly at 11.33 am, according to the Election Commission of India.

The Samajwadi Party was leading in 101 seats followed by Apan Dal (Soneyal) with 11 seats. If the early leads sustain, the BJP may be on the way to retain power in the state, a feat that will be the first in over three decades for an incumbent government to be voted back to power.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and senior BJP Adityanath is leading from Gorakhpur Urban Assembly constituency against the Samajwadi Party candidate Subhawati Upendra Dutt Shukla by over 8,000 votes.

Adityanath represented the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat until 2017 when he was chosen as the UP Chief Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the state polls.

The Gorakhpur Sadar seat had also been a bastion of the BJP, which the party had never lost since 1967 since the days of the Jan Sangh.

The Samajwadi Party had fielded Subhavati Shukla, the widow of the late BJP leader Upendra Dutt Shukla against Adityanath. The Congress fielded Chetna Pandey and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) pitched a first-timer Khwaja Shamsuddin in the fray. Azad Samaj Party's Chandra Shekhar Azad 'Ravan', a young Dalit leader with a base in western Uttar Pradesh is also in the fray for the seat.

BJP candidate and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj Singh is leading from the Noida constituency and party's Kapil Dev Agarwal is leading from n Muzaffarnagar seat.

Exit polls on Monday predicted a clear victory for BJP in Uttar Pradesh with the scale of the party's victory varying across various surveys

In Punjab, celebrations kicked off at the residence of Aam Aadmi Party's Chief Ministeral's candidate Bhagwant Mann with early trends from the Assembly polls counting shows AAP crossing halfway mark in Punjab, according to the Election Commission website.

AAP workers were seen dancing at the Dhuri residence of Mann with brooms in their hands. The broom is the election symbol of the AAP.

AAP was leading on 88 seats at 11:33 am in the 117 seat Punjab assembly, followed by Congress (16), Shiromani Akali Dal (8) and BJP (4).

The BJP crossed the majority mark in Uttrakhand in early trends with 44 seats by 11:40 am. The Congress was leading in 22 seats while the BSP and Independents were leading in 2 seats each in the 70-member Assembly.

The exit polls on Monday predicted a close race in Uttarakhand with many of them giving an edge to the BJP to form the government.
Some exit polls also predicted that Congress would cross the halfway mark in the 70-member Assembly.

In Goa, the BJP was inching closer to the halfway mark as it led in 18 seats at 11.44 am followed by the Congress in 11 seats in the 40-member Assembly. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party was leading in five seats and AAP in two.

The BJP fought the elections on all 40 seats in the state while the Goa Forward Party (GFP) entered into a pre-poll alliance with Congress. The TMC allied with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party for the polls.

In the 60-member Assembly in Manipur, the BJP was leading in 22 seats at 11.48 am and the Congress in three, and the National People’s Party was leading in seven seats..