New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sushil Rinku on Saturday won the Jalandhar (Punjab) Lok Sabha by-election by a margin of over 58,000 votes over his nearest rival and Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur Choudhary. Of the total 8.87 lakh votes polled Rinku got more than 3.02 lakh votesWhile Chowdhary got 2.43 lakh votes. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who was also supported by Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), was third with 1.58 lakh votes and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was third. Fourth with 1.34 lakh votes.
The Jalandhar bypoll, voting for which was held on May 10, was necessitated by the death of Karamjit Kaur’s husband and Congress MP Santokh Singh Choudhary in January.
The bypoll was a litmus test for the 13-month-old AAP government in Punjab, where its victory has now stamped its administrative and leadership skills, and marked its presence in the Lok Sabha.
In June 2022, Aam Aadmi Party suffered a major setback when SAD (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat by defeating AAP’s Gurmail Singh. Bhagwant Mann had represented the seat twice – 2014 and 2019 – and vacated the seat after becoming the chief minister.
For the Jalandhar bypoll, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has fielded Sushil Rinku, who joined the party after quitting the Congress. He helped AAP garner more votes as he belongs to the Ravidasia sect and the Jalandhar seat has 38 per cent Dalit population, with 21 per cent Ravidasias and the rest Valmikis or Mazhabi Sikhs.
The party’s victory is also being seen as a result of steps taken to provide free electricity, jobs to youth, regularize the services of contract workers and open various mohalla clinics. The AAP’s victory also came amid a crackdown on corruption by the Mann-led government.
Arvind Kejriwal Bhagwant Mann’s Punjab govt after Jalandhar bypoll win
AAP’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that the “unprecedented victory” was due to the good work of the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab, after the AAP candidate won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll with a huge margin.
Talking to reporters along with Bhagwant Mann at the AAP headquarters in the national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal said, “It is an unprecedented victory because of the good work of the Mann government. Our party’s candidate is winning from a seat which is a Congress stronghold.” Was. Last 50 years.”
He said that ‘we do politics of work and seek votes from people for our work’.
“People have stamped the work of Bhagwant Mann government by saying ‘we are with you’…It is a big message,” he said.
Mann said the trend of the bypoll results is a “positive seal” of the people in Punjab on the work done by his government so far.
“The election result has increased our responsibility and my confidence. We will work harder for the development of Punjab,” he said.