Aam Aadmi Party candidate Sushil Rinku is ahead of his rival Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by 9,324 votes. As AAP wins Jalandhar seat. Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann says, “We will put in all our efforts to meet the hopes and expectations of the people. We consider this our responsibility.
We humbly accept people's mandate! I thank party workers, volunteers, supporters and the entire @INCPunjab leadership, for the hard work & efforts put in by them for the #JalandharByElection. I congratulate Sushil Rinku & AAP party for the victory, Warring tweeted.
AAP had, as of 1 pm, 2,91,433 votes, as it steadily widened the gap with Congress which had 2,34,025 votes. The Akali-BSP combine was third with 1,51,136, and the BJP in the fourth place with 1,32,438 votes. More than three-fourth of the total votes have been counted.
In Jalandhar, following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal are vying to outdo each other. Congress has fielded Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur, while BJP has bet on Akali import Inder Iqbal Atwal. The SAD-BSP has fielded Banga MLA Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi and the AAP has nominated former Congress MLA Sushil Rinku for the seat.
Counting of votes is under way for the byelections to Odisha's Jharsuguda assembly seat, Meghalaya's Sohiong seat and Punjab's Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.