Legislative Assembly elections were held in Punjab on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
The Aam Aadmi Party gained a strong 79% majority in the sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly by winning 92 out of 117 seats. AAP Punjab convener and MP Bhagwant Mann was sworn in as Chief Minister on 16 March 2022. Mann ministry was formed with 10 cabinet ministers on 19 March 2022.
Background and overview The tenure of the Punjab Legislative Assembly was scheduled to end on 23 March 2022. The previous assembly elections were held in February 2017. After the election, Indian National Congress formed the state government, with Amarinder Singh becoming Chief Minister.
Political developments
On 18 September 2021, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh resigned over differences with other members of Congress and was succeeded by Charanjit Singh Channi. On 27 October 2021, Singh announced that he would be forming a new party to contest the election. He officially resigned from Indian National Congress on 2 November 2021, and founded a new political party, Punjab Lok Congress.
Between June and November 2021, five AAP MLAs joined Congress.
In the 2021 Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election that occurred in December 2021, the Aam Aadmi Party won 14 seats and became the single largest party in the council of total 35 seats.
As of January 2022, four Congress MLAs joined BJP, one of which returned.
On 18 January 2022, AAP declared Bhagwant Mann as their Chief Ministerial candidate for the assembly election.
On 6 February, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced incumbent Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi as their Chief Ministerial candidate.
Farmers' protests
The Parliament of India passed 3 agricultural farm laws in Lok Sabha on 17 September 2020 and in the Rajya Sabha on 20 September 2020. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, gave his assent on 27 September 2020. Farmers and farmers unions held massive protests over a period of more than a year mainly in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. On 19 November 2021, the union government decided to repeal the bills.
Election schedule The election schedule was announced by the Election Commission of India on 8 January 2022. However, the election date was postponed from 14 February 2022 to 20 February 2022 on account of Guru Ravidass Jayanti.
S.No. Event Date Day 1. Date for nominations 25 January 2022 Tuesday 2. Last date for filing nominations 1 February 2022 Tuesday 3. Date for scrutiny of nominations 2 February 2022 Wednesday 4. Last date for withdrawal of candidatures 4 February 2022 Friday 5. Date of poll 20 February 2022 Sunday 6. Date of counting 10 March 2022 Thursday 7. Date before which election shall be completed 12 March 2022 Saturday
Voter statistics According to Punjab Election Commission, 1,304 candidates contested the election and there were 21,499,804 registered voters in the state. Total candidates Male candidates Female candidates Transgender candidates 1304 1209 93 2 Total voters Male voters Female voters Transgender voters S.No. Types Voters 1 General voters 2 People with disabilities 3 Service voters 4 Non resident Indian voters 5 Voters above the age of 80 6 Total
Parties and alliances SAD dissolved its alliance with the BJP, which had lasted over two decades, over the controversial Farm Bills passed by the Indian Parliament in 2020. On 13 June 2021, SAD and BSP announced an alliance for the assembly election with 97-20 seat sharing. On 28 December 2021, BJP, PLC and SAD(S) announced an alliance for the assembly elections.
AAP contested on all the seats without any alliance.
Indian National Congress
Chief Ministerial candidate was Charanjit Singh Channi. No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Indian National Congress Charanjit Singh Channi 117 106 11
Aam Aadmi Party
Chief Ministerial candidate was Bhagwant Mann. No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Aam Aadmi Party Bhagwant Mann 117 105 12
Shiromani Akali Dal+
Chief Ministerial candidate was Sukhbir Singh Badal.
No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Shiromani Akali Dal Sukhbir Singh Badal 97 92 52. Bahujan Samaj Party Jasvir Singh Garhi 20 19 1 Total 117 111 6
National Democratic Alliance (India)
NDA contested the election without a Chief Ministerial face.
PLC was allotted 37 seats, but only contested in 34 seats after it could not find candidates to run in 3 seats. The three seats were returned to BJP. 4 Candidates of PLC contested on BJP symbol.
No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Bharatiya Janata Party Ashwani Kumar Sharma 73 67 62. Punjab Lok Congress Amarinder Singh 28 26 23. Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa 15 14 1 Total 116 107 9
Sanyukt Samaj Morcha+
Chief Ministerial candidate was Balbir Singh Rajewal.
No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Sanyukt Samaj Morchacontesting as Independents Balbir Singh Rajewal 107 103 42. Sanyukt Sangharsh Party Gurnam Singh Charuni 10 10 0 Total 117 113 4
Others
No. Party Flag Symbol Leader Photo Seats contested Male candidates Female candidates1. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann 81 78 32. Lok Insaaf Party Simarjit Singh Bains 35 34 13. Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sukhwinder Singh Sekhon 14 14 04. Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation Sukhdarshan Singh Natt 11 11 05. Communist Party of India Bant Singh Brar 7 7 0
Candidates
AAP CM candidate Bhagwant Mann contested from Dhuri.
Congress leader and CM Charanjit Singh Channi contested from Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur, and former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal contested from Lehragaga from INC.
Former CM, Prakash Singh Badal, member of Shiromani Akali Dal, contested from Lambi. While SAD-BSP alliance’s CM candidate Sukhbir Singh Badal contested from Jalalabad. Former CM, Amarinder Singh, member of Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) contested from Patiala Urban.
There were total 1304 candidates in fray. 2266 candidates filed their nominations and out of these, 1645 found valid. 341 withdrew their candidature. (Names of the winning candidates are in bold text)