The Bahujan Samaj Party may not have won any seat in the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab but it has surprised many by finishing third on the three seats it contested, doing better than the AAP.

Facing the erosion of its vote bank over the past several years in Punjab, the BSP garnered vote share of 3.49 per cent as against 1.9 per cent in 2014. The party polled 4.79 lakh votes in the state this general election.

The BSP stitched an alliance and became a part of Punjab Democratic Alliance, a conglomeration of several political outfits for contesting the elections.

As part of the seat-sharing pact, the BSP fielded three candidates from Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur (reserve) and Jalandhar (reserve) seats in Punjab.

In 2014, the BSP had contested all 13 seats and still got only 2.63 lakh votes. The party was on fourth spot on seven seats, sixth on two seats and ranked fifth on two seats.

On all the seats it contested this Lok Sabha polls, the BSP contestants finished third, as per the election results. The candidates of the AAP, which is the main opposition party in Punjab, finished fourth on these seats.

What surprised many was that its Jalandhar candidate Balwinder Kumar got more than two lakh votes or 20 per cent of total votes polled, though he could not win.

In Hoshiarpur, BSP nominee Khushi Ram secured over 1.28 lakh votes, prompting Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to blame the defeat of the Congress candidate to the shift of votes to the BSP. He said this has been a deciding factor for this constituency and has also affected the winning margins in some others.

From the Anandpur Sahib constituency, BSP nominee Vikram Singh Sodhi secured 1.46 lakh votes and finished third.

As per the election commission data, the vote share of the BSP was 3.49 per cent (4,79,788 votes), way ahead of several parties including the CPI and the CPM.