NEW DELHI: The seat sharing of the BJP-led Coalition in Punjab finalised for the upcoming state assembly elections on Monday. The details were announced by Bhartiya Janta party President JP Nadda with BJP getting the maximum number of seats. Of the total 117 Punjab seats while Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) got the majority numbers with it contesting on 65 seats, Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) will contest on 37 seats, and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) will field its candidates on 15 seats.
Later in a tweet, Nadda said, “Punjab needs special attention. Security is a very important issue. This election is for stability and safety. Our motto is to bring back Punjab on track.”
The state had been witnessing major political turmoil since the end of 2021 which led to the resignation of the then Congress Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh in September last year. Later Amrinder floated a new political outfit.
The Aam Aadmi Party has already declared Bhagwant Mann as its Chief Minister Candidate.
The elections in the state will be taking place in a single phase with casting of votes scheduled on February 20. It was earlier fixed for February 14 but was later changed by the Election Commission. The counting will be done on March 10 with the results coming out the same day.
It was Congress which had won 77 out of the 117 total seats in 2017 after defeating the erstwhile ruling alliance of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP pushing them to third place with only 18 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) became the official Opposition in the assembly by ranking second largest party by winning 20 seats.