Jalandhar bypoll: AAP romps home, snatches Cong bastion of 21 years

The ruling Aam Admi Party (AAP) in Punjab has registered a landslide victory in the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency, the by-election for which was held on May 10 after the seat fell vacant due to the death of sitting Congress MP Santokh Singh Chowdhary during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra in January this year.

Jalandhar has traditionally been a Congress bastion winning it for four consecutive times, but AAP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku this time pulled off a major victory with a huge margin of 58,000 votes against Congress candidate and Chowdhary's widow Karamjit Kaur. This marks AAP's re-entry into the Lok Sabha as the party's first MP Bhagwant Mann had resigned from the Lower House to become the Chief Minister.

Though there were 19 candidates in the fray for this seat, it had become more of a four-cornered contest with the ruling AAP taking a lead from the beginning of the campaigning. For the first time since 1997, BJP fought this election alone after breaking away from the Akali Dal. BJP had fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh who quit Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to join the saffron party, but failed to make a mark.

Rinku secured 3,02,097 votes while Kaur could muster only 2,43,450 votes. SAD candidate Sukhwinder Kumar 'Sukhi', backed by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), came third with 1,58,354 votes while BJP's Atwal was relegated to in the fourth place with 1,34,706 votes.

Counting of votes began at 8 O'clock this morning at the Directorate of Land Records and Sports College Complex located on Kapurthala Road in Jalandhar. Tight security arrangements were made by Punjab Police to ensure that there is no disturbance during the counting of votes. Paramilitary forces have also been deployed around the counting centre to thwart any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, the low voter turnout this time has become a matter of concern for all the stakeholders. Only 54.7 per cent voters reached the polling booths, which is 8 per cent less than the last election and 14 per cent less then previous elections. The Lok Sabha segment had recorded a voter turnout of 62.36 per cent in 2019 polls, 67.21 per cent in 2014 and 67.11 per cent in 2009.