A Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

on 4 February 2017 to elect the 117 members of the

Fifteenth In music, a fifteenth or double octave, abbreviated ''15ma'', is the interval between one musical note and another with one-quarter the wavelength or quadruple the frequency. It has also been referred to as the bisdiapason. The fourth harmonic, ...

Punjab Legislative Assembly The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members, directl ...

. The counting of votes was done on 11 March 2017. The ruling pre-election coalition was the

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

comprising the political parties

Shiromani Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Akali Party'') is a centre-right sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920. Although there are many ...

and

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

and led by

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Parkash Singh Badal Parkash Singh Badal ( pa, ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ ਸਿੰਘ ਬਾਦਲ; born 8 December 1927) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab state from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017. He i ...

. The voter turnout for the Punjab Assembly election was 77.2% The

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

led by former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh defeated the ruling alliance and the newcomer

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

Background

Electoral process changes

In April 2016, the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

revealed about 8 lakh bogus votes of state being cancelled in the past one year and over 7 lakh youngsters who have attained the age of 18 this year were yet to get registered. One constituency in every district will be chosen for trial run of

Voter-verified paper audit trail Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow ...

(VVPAT) machines used along with EVMs. Election Commission also decided to set up new polling stations if the number of voters was more than 1200 in rural areas and 1400 in urban areas. 33 constituencies of all district headquarters in Punjab had VVPAT machines installed with EVMs, including 22 district headquarters besides 11 high-profile constituencies. As per the special summary revision of electoral rolls, there are a total of 1.9 crore voters in Punjab as of August 2016.

Political developments

The 2014 general election was held in Punjab for 13 parliamentary constituencies. Shiromani Akali Dal and

won 4 seats each,

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

won 3 while 2 constituencies elected Bharatiya Janata Party candidates. The first-time contesting Aam Aadmi Party won from 34 of the total 117 assembly segments, coming second in 7, third in 73 and fourth in the rest 3 segments. Wherever it trailed the major parties, its vote share was mostly bigger than the margin of victory of the winning candidate, turning forthcoming elections into three-cornered contests. ;Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party The previous election, held in 2012, resulted in a majority of seats being won by ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party and Parkash Singh Badal became Chief Minister of Punjab. ;Aam Aadmi Party In December 2015, Aam Aadmi Party declared that it would contest the Legislative Assembly elections in 2017. AAP which did not participate in the previous assembly election, had fought 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Their 2014 performance translates to 33 assembly seats out of 117. In the election, the party formed a coalition with the

Lok Insaaf Party Lok Insaaf Party was founded in 2016 by Simarjit Singh Bains. It contested 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election on 5 seats in alliance with Aam Aadmi Party. 2017 Punjab assembly election LIP contested 2017 Punjab assembly election on 5 se ...

and gave it five seats. No CM candidate was declared before the elections. According to AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the CM candidate would be selected from Punjab. AAP won 20 seats in the Punjab Assembly in its debut in the 2017 Punjab elections. The performance of AAP was below expectations and 25 candidates of the party lost their deposit amounts. ;Indian National Congress The Congress took part in the elections under the leadership of

Amarinder Singh Captain Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. A former Member of the Legislative Assembly, Punjab and Member ...

, and the party hired poll strategist

Prashant Kishor Prashant Kishor, colloquially known as PK, is an Indian political strategist and tactician. A public health expert by training, who worked with the United Nations for eight years before venturing into Indian politics and working as a political ...

for campaigning. ;Bahujan Samaj Party BSP is the fourth largest party in Punjab after improving its vote share in 2012 elections started preparations for 2017 early by launching ''Punjab Bachao Abhiyaan'' from 1 November 2014. In 2012, the BSP came second from

Balachaur Balachaur is a town in Balachaur Tehsil in the Nawanshahr district, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar District of Punjab, India, Punjab, India. History Raja Raj Dev, a Rajput, came to Balachaur along with his family to meditate. He was related to the ...

Vidhan Sabha seat with 21,943 votes. On 15 March 2016, Mayawati during a mega-rally in

Nawanshahr Nawanshahr is a municipal council in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district in the Indian state of Punjab. It was previously a town that became a district in 1995. History Nawanshahr was founded by migrants from Rahon, a city located near the S ...

on the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram in Punjab attacked SAD-BJP government as "anti-Dalit" and

Arvind Kejriwal Arvind Kejriwal (Hindi: �ɾʋin̪d̪ ked͡ʒɾiːʋaːl born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician, former bureaucrat, and activist who is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. Currently, he is the national conv ...

as a "

baniya __NOTOC__ The Bania (also spelled Baniya, Banija, Banya, Vaniya, Vani, Vania and Vanya) is a Vaishya community mainly found in Indian states of Gujarat, and Rajasthan, but they are also found in Madhya Pradesh. Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh ...

" who had "always worked against Dalit and Scheduled Caste people" before he became Delhi CM. Mayawati also declared that the BSP will contest Punjab 2017 elections on its own in all 117 seats. The BSP declared that it will root out the drug menace from the state within a month of coming to power in Punjab. On 9 June 2016, BSP national president

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...

supported the film on Punjab drug abuse ''

Udta Punjab ''Udta Punjab'' () is a 2016 Indian black comedy crime drama film written and directed by Abhishek Chaubey, co-written by Sudip Sharma, and produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor, Sameer Nair and Aman Gill under Balaji Motion Pictures in assoc ...

'', saying there is 'nothing wrong' in it. In May 2016, the BSP launched the ''Pind Pind Chalo, Ghar Ghar Chalo'' campaign, a door-to-door drive to cover 29 million people across 550,000 households with ''Punjab Bachao, BSP laao'' (Save Punjab, elect BSP) as its main slogan as well as the overall theme of the campaign. The BSP formed 65 teams for around 15,000 big and small rallies as well as seminars to be conducted in the state. The party also announced a 10% reservation for the poor ''upper castes'' if the BSP government comes to power in Punjab. BSP Punjab unit started social media campaigning and also visited

NRI NRI or Nri may refer to : * Kingdom of Nri, an Igbo kingdom that flourished between the 10th century and early 20th century * National Radio Institute, a now defunct post-secondary vocational correspondence school * National Resources Inventory * N ...

s for support in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Europe and North America. On 16 May 2016, the Ambedkar Sena Punjab merged with BSP. Gurmel Chander, former president of the SC & BC teachers employees union, joined the BSP on 25 August. On 25 September 2016, the BSP announced a list of nine candidates for 2017 Punjab assembly elections. On 25 September 2016,

Avtar Singh Karimpuri Avtar Singh Karimpuri, is an Indian politician of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) from Punjab. He is President of Bahujan Samaj Party Punjab Unit and is ex-Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper ...

was replaced with Rashpal Singh Raju as BSP Punjab state president as the former was declared a Vidhan Sabha candidate from

Phillaur Phillaur is a city and a municipal council as well as a tehsil in Jalandhar district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Punjab, India, Punjab. Overview Phillaur is the railway junction on the border line of Ludhiana Main ...

. Karimpuri's entry in Phillaur constituency spiced up the political battle in the seat. Karimpuri said that the Punjab Congress does not want an alliance with the BSP, rather its agenda was to wipe out BSP from Punjab in the 2017 assembly elections. New BSP president Rashpal Raju announced a mega rally in Phagwara on 9 October

Parinirvana In Buddhism, ''parinirvana'' (Sanskrit: '; Pali: ') is commonly used to refer to nirvana-after-death, which occurs upon the death of someone who has attained ''nirvana'' during their lifetime. It implies a release from '' '', karma and rebirth a ...

divas of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. At this rally, Avtar Singh Karimpuri and Dr. Megh Raj attacked

and

as anti-

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

parties.

Election issues

First and foremost issue was drug peddling. There were several election issues like unemployment & lack of skills, farmers' crises, continually failing economy, ''sifarish'' (patronage & influence peddling & nepotism), unbridled crime and the role of goons in day-to-day matters of the citizen, road rage & accidents. Atrocities against

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

s and Dalit land issues in Sangrur area, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the supply of drugs & addiction to them. Punjabi

Non-resident Indian Overseas Indians ( IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of In ...

s (NRIs) play a major role in elections.

Caste and religion data

As per the 2011 census, 57.69% of the state's population follows Sikhism, making Punjab the only Sikh majority state in India. Hindus form 38.5% of the population, while Muslims, 1.93%; Christians, 1.3%; Buddhists, 0.12%; and Jains, 0.16%. Dalits (Scheduled Castes) constitute 31.94% of the population, the highest percentage amongst all the states. Other Backward Classes (OBCs) like

Saini Saini () is a caste of North India who were traditionally landowners (zamindars) and farmers. Sainis claim to be descendants of a king, Shurasena, as well as of Krishna and Porus, and to be related to the ancient Shoorsaini clan,'' "The Sain ...

Sunar Sunar (alternately, Sonar or Swarnkar) is a Hindu caste in India referring to the community of people who work as goldsmiths. The community is primarily Hindu, and found usually in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat and other North ...

, Kambojs, Tarkhans/Ramgarhias, Gurjars, Kumhars/Prajapatis, Telis, Banjaras, Lohars constitute 31.3% of the population. Jat-Sikhs comprise 21% of the population while other forward castes (general category) - Brahmins, Khatris/Bhapas, Bania, Thakurs/Rajputs constitute around rest. As of 2016, Government of India did not publicly released Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 ''caste population data'' for every single non-SC/ST castes (General castes, OBC/EBCs) in India.

Schedule

Announced poll dates on Jan 4, 2017
/sup> Counting of vote in assembly elections in Punjab took place on 11 March. The Punjab state witnessed a tough fight between the major four political parties in the assembly election held on 4 February 2017. The term of the current assembly will end on 18 March 2017.

Districts and constituencies

Distribution of seats

Distribution per district

Distribution per region

Parties and Alliances

Others

Opinion polls

Exit polls

All the exit polls other than India Today Axis My India, wrongly predicted the winner of the election. The exit polls were published on the day of the election in March 2017.

Incidents

Voting Machine malfunction

Several reports of the Electronic Voting Machine malfunctioning was reported from multiple locations in the state. AAP said that it had received more than 406 complaints of EVM malfunction.

Results

Results By region

Results By district

Results by constituency

Government Formation

On March 11, 2017, the results of the Punjab Assembly elections were declared and the Akali-BJP coalition was defeated. Punjab Chief Minister

Prakash Singh Badal Parkash Singh Badal ( pa, ਪ੍ਰਕਾਸ਼ ਸਿੰਘ ਬਾਦਲ; born 8 December 1927) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab state from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017. He ...

resigned in next 12 days. On March 16, 2017, Capt. Amarinder Singh was sworn in as Chief Minister of Punjab, along with nine of his cabinet ministers.

Bypolls 2017-2021

References

External links

Statistical Report on 2012 Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections
{{Punjab (India) elections 2010s in Punjab, India 2017 State Assembly elections in India State Assembly elections in Punjab, India