Cong ahead in 7 seats in Punjab, AAP in 3; Amritpal Singh leading

Chandigarh: The Congress was leading in seven seats in Punjab, while the AAP was ahead in three seats, according to initial Election Commission trends.

Congress candidates were leading from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Anandpur Sahib and Ludhiana seats and the AAP was ahead in Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and Patiala, the trends showed.

Congress party's Sukhjinder Randhawa was leading in Gurdaspur seat against his nearest rival BJP's Dinesh Singh Babbu by a margin of 1,978 votes.

Congress candidate Gurjeet Singh Aujla was leading in Amritsar against his nearest rival AAP's Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal by a margin of 2,684 votes while the Congress party's Vijay Inder Singla was leading in Anandpur Sahib seat against AAP's Malvinder Singh Kang by a margin of 381 votes.

Congress candidate Amar Singh was also leading in Fatehgarh Sahib against the AAP's Gurpreet Singh GP by 7,556 votes while the party's Sher Singh Ghubaya was leading in Ferozepur seat against the AAP's Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar.

Congress party's Charanjit Singh Channi was leading in Jalandhar against BJP's Sushil Rinku while party candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring was leading in Ludhiana against BJP's Ravneet Singh Bittu.

AAP's Raj Kumar Chabbewal was leading in Hoshiarpur against Congress's Yamini Gomar while AAP's Balbir Singh is leading in Patiala against Congress' Dharamvira Gandhi.

AAP's Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer was leading in Sangrur against SAD (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann.

SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal is also leading in Bathinda seat, as per trends.

Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, who contested as an independent, was leading from Khadoor Sahib seat against Congress party's Kulbir Singh Zira. Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, who is contesting as an independent, was leading in Faridkot against his nearest rival AAP's Karamjit Singh Anmol.

Khalsa is the son of one of the two assassins of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was also leading from Faridkot seat.

Counting of votes for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and the lone Chandigarh seat began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements.