Loading Punjab 1997 map…
Seats by party
SAD: 75 seats (64.1%)BJP: 18 seats (15.4%)INC: 14 seats (12.0%)IND: 6 seats (5.1%)CPI: 2 seats (1.7%)BSP: 1 seats (0.9%)SAD(M): 1 seats (0.9%)59 for a majority11759 TO GOVERN
The story

The comeback election

What happened

One party returned to power in a landslide, defeating the outgoing government.

The Shiromani Akali Dal won 75 of the 117 seats on offer.

That was on 37.6% of the vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate.

What changed

This election marked a sharp turnaround.

55 seats swung from the Indian National Congress to the SAD, more than any other pair of parties that year.

The party's own seat count shows the scale of the change: from 3 seats at the previous election to 75 this time.

Far more registered voters turned out to cast a ballot this time, a share that rose +44.8 pp from the previous election.

Notable numbers

A few numbers from the results stand out on their own.

The tightest finish of the election came at Dasuya, Punjab, decided by a margin of just 53 votes — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.

Dirbha, Punjab recorded the highest turnout of the election — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — at 81.0%.

Contesting together with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the two parties' combined total reached 93 seats, 79.5% of the house.

Ludhiana Rural, Punjab was the state's largest constituency by registered voters, with 3,04,396 names on its rolls.

The backdrop

Independents and smaller parties also picked up a share of the seats that year.

6 seats went to independents alone.

Ask the state

STATE INDICATORS · RBI 2024-25