For Every 100 Votes That AAP Gets...A Look At Its Big Strides In Punjab

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party or AAP, which did not exist when Punjab last voted for its state government, has crashed the big-league by binge-eating, equally, into the vote share of the Congress and the BJP-Akali Dal alliance.

AAP was founded in November 2012. Punjab had given the Akali-BJP alliance a second consecutive term at the start of that year. Two years later, in the general election, the party won an unexpected four parliamentary seats. AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been on a virtual time-share with Punjab since then, especially in recent months, on promotional duty. The party has not named a Chief Ministerial candidate, though Bhagwant Mann, an MP, is reportedly top seeded.

The four parliamentary seats that AAP won in 2014 are equal to 33 assembly constituencies. AAP gained these at significant cost to the Akalis, causing them much more pain than the Congress.
 
For every 100 votes that AAP got, it pulled 35 from the Congress, 45 from the Akali alliance, and about 20 from other parties like Mayawati's BSP (based on swings from 2012 to 2014 elections).
 
AAP is strongest in the South East (the Akalis have a grip on the West, the BJP in the North, and the Congress in the North East and South West). Punjab has 117 seats. Of the state's four regions, East Malwa has the most seats: 36. And this is where AAP has the most support. The other three regions of Majha, Doab and West Malwa elect 27 members each.  
 
AAP is more popular in Sikh areas than in Hindu-dominated zones - 57.59 per cent of Punjab's population is Sikh and 38.49 per cent is Hindu.  

The party's vote share shows strong returns in rural areas, but far poorer dividends in urban spots. A 25 per cent vote share in rural areas yields 28 seats for AAP, but in urban areas, a 24 per cent vote share accrues just 5 seats.  
 
Its support base is also centred far more on the youth than either the Congress or the Akalis.