11 Charts that Explain the Punjab Election Results

Punjab’s Legislative Assembly elections were held on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly and the results were announced on 10 March 2022.

Change in vote share 2017-22 

Punjab’s verdict was to reach for the reset button and upload a new ruling party. With AAAP trouncing every other legacy party in the state, it became clear that the state’s voters are betting on AAAP’s ability to run a progressive policy driven government. The party garnered 92 seats with the help of over 42% vote share- a massive jump compared to the 2017’s 20 seat win backed by over 24% voters. In absolute numbers it’s a surge of 28,76,118 voters shifting to the party, at a time when the overall turnout dropped by a significant 5%. 

At the opposite end were major parties- INC, SAD & BJP. INC saw a 15.52% drop in vote share and lost 59 seats, SAD witnessed a furtherance in its state of decline- it lost another 12 seats and roughly 7% vote share. BJP lost 1 seat from its 2017 position, and countered the general trend by gaining additional 1.21% votes. The remaining 2 seats were grabbed by an independent candidate and BSP’s candidate.

Margins   

AAAP dominated Sunam, where Aman Arora’s edge over INC’s Jaswinder Singh Dhiman was a substantial 75,277 voters- a massive 49% margin. The tensest fight was at Jalandhar Central, between AAAP’s Raman Arora and INC’s Rajinder Beri, where AAAP was declared the winner based on a margin of 247 votes. INC’s weakest victory was at Dera Baba Nanak, where the party was ahead of SAD by 466 votes and at Bholath, the victory was achieved with 10% margin of 9225 votes. BJP’s twin victory was at Mukherian (1.18%) and Pathankot (6.84%). SAD secured its stronghold- Majithia with a margin of 21% over its AAAP challenger and Dakha with a margin of 4%.

Candidates   

A total of 1304 candidates competed for the 117 seats- 1209 male, 93 women and two transgenders. 231 represented national parties, 250 from state parties, 362 from unrecognized parties, and 461 stood as independent candidates. The results saw 13 female MLAs and 104 male MLAs joining the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly.

Lota Candidates 

AAAP’s share of Lota candidates stood at 17 and out of these 12 candidates won the 2022 elections. The 12 were from INC (5), SAD(3), PPCC(1), RMPOI (1), LIP (1) and PNPP (1). The SAD and BSP combine hosted 12 lota candidates and none were able to win a seat.  INC’ camp had 5 lota candidates, out of which 1 candidate was able to secure victory.