Punjab elections: CM Charanjit Singh Channi loses both seats, show trends

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has lost seats from both of his constituencies -- Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar district and Bhadaur seat in Barnala, as per trends around 2 pm on Thursday. In Bhadaur, Channi lost from AAP candidate Labh Singh Ugoke with a margin of above 27,000 votes.

Channi and most of his Council of Ministers were trailing in their respective constituencies, as per the trends at 12 pm.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal congratulated the people of Punjab for party's stellar performance in the state assembly polls, calling the mandate "revolutionary". Kejriwal also shared a photo of him and the AAP Chief Ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann, showing the victory sign.

As per the Election Commission, Aam Aadmi Party is leading in 91 seats out of the 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly at 2 PM, followed by Congress (17) and Shiromani Akali Dal (7). If AAP wins Punjab, it will be the party's maiden victory in the state and a vast improvement from its performance in the 2017 elections when it had finished second behind Congress.

Claiming his victory following the trends, Mann addressed a gathering saying, "Bade Badal Sahib has lost, Sukhbir (Badal) has lost from Jalalabad, Capt has lost from Patiala, Sidhu & Majithia are also losing, Channi has lost on both the seats...says AAP's Bhagwant Mann in Sangrur as party sweeps Punjab."

Channi is the sitting MLA from Chamkaur Sahib. Most of Channi’s ministers, who had succeeded Amarinder Singh after his unceremonious exit as the chief minister in September last year, were also trailing.

From Amritsar Central seat, Minister O P Soni was trailing behind AAP’s Ajay Gupta while Raj Kumar Verka was behind AAP’s Jasbir Singh Sandhu from Amritsar West.

Manpreet Singh Badal was behind AAP’s Jagroop Gill from Bathinda Urban seat while from Gidderbaha, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring was trailing behind Akali Dal’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon.

From Sangrur, Vijay Inder Singla was trailing behind AAP’s Narinder Kaur Bharaj.

Pargat Singh was trailing behind AAP’s Surinder Singh Sodhi from Jalandhar Cantonment and Bharat Bhushan Ashu was behind AAP’s Gurpreet Bassi Gogi from Ludhiana West.

Razia Sultana was behind her nearest AAP rival Mohammed Jamil-ur-Rahman from Malerkotla seat.

Sangat Singh Gilzian was trailing behind AAP’s Jasvir Singh Raja Gill from Urmar seat.

Ministers Rana Gurjeet Singh, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa were leading.

(With agency inputs)