Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday expressed his gratitude to voters for the impressive victory of the Congress in the state in this Lok Sabha polls.
He also thanked Punjab ministers, party legislators and Congress workers for the good show they put up in the state. "I express my gratitude to all workers of Youth Congress and NSUI for their support and hard work which led to such a good showing in the Lok Sabha polls," he tweeted.
"I also thank people of Punjab for placing trust in us by giving such a mandate," the chief minister tweeted, reiterating his commitment of making Punjab "number one again".
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won eight out of total 13 seats in Punjab, bucking the pro-Modi trend seen across northern and central India in this general election.
The Congress romped home to impressive victory on eight seats, surprising both the SAD-BJP combine and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and improving its tally from three in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It had won Gurdaspur in a bypoll in 2017.
The Akali Dal-BJP alliance won four seats. The lone seat won by the AAP was of Sangrur, a constituency retained by Bhagwant Mann.
CONGRESS VOTE SHARE JUMPS TO 40 PER CENT
The vote share of the Congress in Punjab jumped to 40 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which it won eight out of total 13 parliamentary seats in the state.
The vote share of the Aam Aadmi Party which could manage to win just one seat, nosedived from 24 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 7.38 per cent in the present elections.
The Shiromani Akali Dal's vote share also rose to 27.45 per cent despite the party winning only two seats, Ferozepur and Bathinda, out of 10 it contested.
The BJP, which won Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur seats, also witnessed an increase in its vote share to 9.63 per cent, as per the Election Commission data.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress party's vote share was 33.10 per cent and the SAD's 26.30 per cent. The vote share of AAP and the BJP stood at 24.40 and 8.70 per cent respectively.
Another surprise in the elections was the Bahujan Samaj Party getting 3.49 per cent of the polled votes. BSP candidates who contested from Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar constituencies managed to get more than one lakh votes in each segment.
The Aam Aadmi Party was almost routed from Punjab, winning sole seat of Sangrur out of 13 it contested. The AAP had surprised many in 2014 Lok Sabha polls when it won four seats in Punjab.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while the SAD-BJP combine had won six seats, the AAP and Congress had bagged four and three seats respectively.
