Punjab votes for AAP, gets ’I Love You’ from Arvind Kejriwal

As Punjab gifted a resounding win for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the party's national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal returned the favour with an "I love You."

"Punjab waalo tussi kamaal kar ditta', we all love you, Punjab. The results are a massive 'inquilaab', big seats have shaken up, said Arvind Kejriwal.

It's revolution in Punjab, people have said Kejriwal is not a terrorist, he said adding that MLAs should not get overconfident of the mandate and work for the welfare of the people.

Such a big mandate scares us too, we won't break people's faith, Kejriwal added.

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.

Congress went into the polls, battling factionalism and anti-incumbency. The party changed its Chief Minister in September last year even as the party's new state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu hinted about his own chief ministerial ambitions. Congress finally declared Charanjit Singh Channi as the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab, endorsing him for the chief ministerial face days before the polling on February 20.

The Shiromani Akali Dal, which had broken off the alliance with the BJP over the three farm laws that were eventually repealed, tied up with Bahujan Samaj Party for the Assembly elections.

It is the first time that the BJP fought on over 65 seats in Punjab. It tied up with former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress and SAD (Sanyukt) led by SS Dhindsa.

Punjab recorded an average voter turnout of 65.50% on February 20 compared to over 77% in 2017.

As per the latest Election Commission data, Aam Aadmi Party is leading in 91 seats on the 117 seat Punjab Assembly, followed by Congress (17) and Shiromani Akali Dal (6).

Sidhu himself is trailing from the Amritsar East seat.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Jeevan Jyot Kaur is leading with 25,536 votes followed by Congress's Navjot Singh Sidhu on 20,334 votes and Shiromani Akali Dal's candidate Bikram Singh Majithia with 16,154 votes.

Shiromani Akali Dal's Sukhbir Singh Badal is also trailing by a margin of 11,165 votes from Aam Aadmi Party's Jagdeep Kamboj.

SAD's chief Prakash Singh Badal is also trailing from Lambi seat by a margin of 9,474 votes from Aam Aadmi Party's Gurmeet Singh Khudian.