The Aam Aadmi Party candidate on Saturday won the bypoll from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency, which was considered a Congress stronghold for the past 24 years. AAP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former Congress MLA, defeated his closest rival, Congress’s Karamjit Kaur, by a margin of over 58,000 votes, as per the Election Commission of India. Rinku polled 3,02,279 votes, while Chaudhary secured 2,43,588 votes.
BJP nominee Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was in the third spot, while Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is also backed by the Mayawati-led BSP, was in the fourth spot. Atwal has so far polled 1,34,800 votes, and Sukhi has 1,58,445 votes.
The bypoll, voting for which was held on May 10, was necessitated following the death of Karamjit Kaur’s husband and Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary on January 14 this year following a cardiac arrest while taking part in the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Nineteen candidates contested the bypoll, which recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 percent. The turnout was well below the 63.04 percent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring conceded defeat and congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party and its candidate, Sushil Rinku.
“We humbly accept the people’s mandate! I thank party workers, volunteers, supporters, and the entire @INCPunjab leadership for the hard work and efforts put in by them for the #JalandharByElection. I congratulate Sushil Rinku and the AAP party for the victory,” Warring tweeted.