Hyderabad: The counting of votes in assembly elections in 2022 is on in five states. Early trends show AAP will conquer Punjab while in Uttar Pradesh BJP is likely to make history. In Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur too, it is advantage BJP for now. Interestingly, the chief ministers of Punjab, and Uttarakhand are trailing in their respective constituencies, according to the early inputs. Let's have a look at how the key candidates in the five states are performing for now.
In Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi Adityanath was leading at 11:20 am from Gorakhpur Urban even as his party is looking at a 300-plus tally in 403-seat Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party is at a distant second though its Chief Akhilesh Yadav was leading in Karhal. Meanwhile, UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was leading in Sirathu. Abdul Mannan of BSP was trailing from Sandila while SP's Azam Khan was leading from his traditional seat of Rampur. BJP's Pankaj Singh is also leading from Noida.
In Punjab,the AAP broom has swept the border state as early trends show the Kejriwal party crossing the majority mark with 80 seats at 10 am in the 117 Punjab Assembly for which the majority mark is 59. AAP's CM candidate Bhagwant Singh Mann was leading from Dhuri while CM Charanjit Singh Channi was trailing from both Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib. Congress' Navjot Singh Sidhu was trailing from Amritsar East. Similarly, Punjab Lok Congress leader and former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh were trailing from Patiala while SAD's Bikram Majithia was also trailing in Patiala Assembly constituency. As per ECI, Congress had 14 followed by SAD (7). Counting for 117 assembly seats in Punjab began at 8 am across the state on Thursday. Exit polls on Monday predicted a clear victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab with the scale of the party's victory varying across various surveys.
Meanwhile, in Uttarakhand, former CM and Congress leader Harish Rawat was trailing from Lalkuan at 10 am. BJP candidate and Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami was also trailing from Khatima. BJP contestants Madan Kaushik (Haridwar), Ganesh Joshi (Mussoorie) Premchand Aggarwal (Rishikesh), Arvind Pandey (Gadarpur) were leading in their respective constituencies. Saffron party's Kishore Upadhyay (Kaladhungi), Dhan Singh Rawat (Srinagar), and Kunwarani Devyani (Khanpur) were trailing at 10 am. In the 70-seat assembly, BJP was leading in 40 seats, while Congress was a distant second at 24. 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.
As for Goa early numbers show BJP leading in 18 assembly constituencies, while Congress is leading in 14 seats in the 40-seat assembly. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was leading in Sankahlim seat, 10 am trends show. Congress candidate Dharmesh Saglani was leading over BJP's Pramod Sawant by 446 votes, as per the Election Commission of India's website. At the same time, Utpal Parrikar, the son of former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, is leading in Panaji. With the exit polls predicting that the results in Goa would end in a dead heat, political parties in the state are preparing for post-poll scenarios. Goa went to the polls in a single phase on February 14.
In Manipur, BJP was leading in at least nine assembly seats followed by Congress with four seats and Janata Dal (United) with three seats according to early trends by the Election Commission. Parties Kuki People's Alliance, Naga Peoples Front, National People's Party, Republican Party of India (Athawale) are leading on one seat each at 10:15 am today. CM and BJP leader Nongthombam Biren Singh were leading from Heingang while Congress' Surjakumar Okram was leading from Khangabok at 10 am. Further, BJP is leading in terms of vote share thereby standing at 45.05 per cent followed by Congress with a 20.66 per cent vote share.
