Election Results 2019: Congress’ Strongholds Reduce To Punjab, Kerala

The Indian National Congress, once the nation's largest party that stayed at the helm for more than 60 years, has now been reduced to two states — Punjab and Kerala.

At least that's what the trends from the Election Commission of India website show as of 5 p.m. The Congress is leading in nine of the 13 seats in Punjab, and in 19 of the 20 seats in Kerala. In comparison, the Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance drew a blank in Kerala. It bagged two seats in Punjab despite an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Overall, while it's still early in the counting process, the NDA is leading in 347 of the total 545 seats. The United Progressive Alliance has managed a lead in 91 seats.

Out of these, the BJP itself has a lead in 300 seats — higher than 282 won in the last general election. The Congress has a lead in 50 seats so far, also higher than 44 last time.

While the Congress' alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is leading in Tamil Nadu, it is largely due to the MK Stalin-led local party and hence, cannot be called a Congress stronghold.

Who Won The Key Fights

In Punjab

• Ferozepur
  Shiromani Akali Dal's Sukhbir Singh Badal is leading by 1,89,884 votes with INC's Sher Singh Ghubaya trailing.
• Anandpur Sahib
  INC's Manish Tewari is leading by 40,237 votes with the Shiromani Akali Dal's Prem Singh Chandumajra trailing.
• Gurdaspur
  BJP's Sunny Deol is leading by 80,213 votes with INC's Sunil Jakhar trailing.
• Bathinda
  Shiromani Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal is leading by 18,226 votes with INC's Amrinder Singh Raja Warring trailing.
• Patiala
  INC's Praneet Kaur is leading by 1,39,465 votes with Shiromani Akali Dal's Surjit Singh Rakhra trailing.
• Sangur
  AAP's Bhagwant Mann is leading by 93,011 votes with INC's Kewal Singh Dhillon trailing.

In Kerala

• Wayanad
  INC President Rahul Gandhi is leading by more than 5 lakh votes against CPI's PP Suneer.
• Thiruvananthapuram
  INC's Shashi Tharoor is leading by 41,845 votes and BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan is trailing.
• Kannur
  INC's K Sudhakaran is leading by 77,892 votes with CPI(M)'s PK Sreemathi Teacher trailing.
• Vadakara
  INC's K Muraleedharan is leading by 64,376 votes with CPI(M)'s P Jayarajan trailing.
• Kozhikode
  INC's MK Raghavan is leading by 78,220 votes with CPI(M)'s A Pradeep Kumar trailing.
• Thrissur
  INC's TN Prathapan is leading by 82,286 votes with CPI's Rajaji Mathew Thomas trailing.
• Pathanamthitta
  INC's Anto Antony is leading by 38,280 votes with CPI(M)'s Veena George trailing.
• Ernakulam
  INC's Hibi Eden is leading by 1.6 lakh votes with CPI(M)'s P Rajeev trailing.

What Happened In Previous General Elections

In Punjab, the Congress had won three seats in the last general election with a 33.19 percent vote share. The Shiromani Akali Dal won four seats (26.37 percent), Aam Aadmi Party got four (24 percent) and the BJP two (8.77 percent).

The election before that, the Congress won eight seats in Punjab with 45.23 percent voter share. The BJP won one seat with 10.06 percent, while the Shiromani Akali Dal bagged four seats with 33.85 percent voter share.

In Kerala, the United Democratic Front dominated the 2014 election, bagging 13 of the 19 seats. Eight of those were won by the Congress. The Left Democratic Front won six led by the Communist Party of India.

In 2009, too, the UDF won the maximum seats — 16 out of 20 — with the Congress leading the charge. The LDF won the remaining four seats.

Both times, the BJP failed to make any headway in the state.

What The 2017 Assembly Election Showed

The INC won the last election in Punjab with 77 seats with 38.50 percent vote share. The Shiromani Akali Dal bagged 15 seats (25.24 percent) and the AAP won 20 seats (23.72 percent). Only 5.39 percent of electorate voted for the BJP, which fetched them three seats.

The LDF dominated Kerala's assemble elections in 2016, winning 77 seats of the total 140. The Congress-led UDF won 46 with a 49.46 percent voter share. The BJP managed to bag one seat a 10.53 percent vote share.