Punjabi Electoral System!

[singh1986]

I was just looking at the recent elections (2009) in India.

I understand that Punjab has 13 constituencies, 8 were won by congress, 4 by Akali Dal (Badal) and 1 by BJP...

so how is it possible for Akali-BJP coalition to be in power?

[proactive]

What you were looking at was the Lok Sabha elections which are to the central parliament in Delhi. The Punjab state elections to the Vidhan Sabha were held in 2007. The Akalis won 49 seats, BJP won 19 seats and the congress won 44. The total number of seats is 117.

[singh1986]

Thank you^

and Wow punjabi politics is so ridiculous... we have a party that sanctioned the attack on Akal Takhat with 44 seats in Punjab? and I can see Amritsar with only one Akali representative..1 BJP and 2 congresss!?

What on earth is happening?

[Azaad]

the thing you gotta understand is that overall Sikhs are the majority in Punjab, but in most major cities the hindu population outnumbers the Sikhs. Even in Amritsar, there is more of a hindu majority in the urban areas. The MP seat for Amritsar has always been decided on the Hindu vote. For years the MP from Amritsar was a Congress Hindu called O P Sohni. He was only defeated when the right wing hindu party BJP brought in the star studded high profile Navjot Sidhu. Major cities like Ludhiana have Hindu majority hence why BJP have MLA's like Satpal Gosain from there...Only few areas have Sikh Majority like Kapurthala, Gurdaspur, Taran Taaran.