The counting of the crucial Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-polls, in which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) engaged in a four-corner contest, is in its last leg. As per the data available on the Election Commission website, the Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the clear winner in the race, handing a defeat to the Congress for the first time in 25 years.
The AAP has won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, a Congress bastion for decades, with a margin of 58,691 votes.
The incumbent AAP government in Punjab fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku from Jalandhar’s seat. Sushil Kumar Rinku is a former Congress MLA from the Jalandhar West constituency in the previous assembly who switched to AAP.
Congress, on the other hand, had banked upon the legacy of two-time MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, and fielded his wife, Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, from Jalandhar. BJP, meanwhile, fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal and Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) fielded Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi.
Jalandhar is one of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab. The by-poll in the constituency was necessitated after the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, who had suffered a cardiac arrest during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar’s Phillaur in January this year. Chaudhary was walking alongside Congress scion Rahul Gandhi, suddenly he felt uneasy as his heartbeat increased.
It is notable that other than Santokh Chaudhary, four people died during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. Senior Congress leader and General Secretary of Congress Seva Dal, Krishna Kumar Pandey, died at the age of 75 during Bharat Jodo Yatra on November 8, 2022.
On November 12, 2022, another person died during Yatra. Reportedly, a 62-year-old Congress worker from Tamil Nadu, identified as Ganesan Ponraman of Thanjavur, was hit by a truck in Nanded, Maharashtra.
On November 25, 2022, a Sub-Inspector (SI) identified as Bhupendra Singh Gurjar, who was rehearsing for Bharat Jodo Yatra in Ahar-Malwa, was hit by a car.
On December 3, 2022, Congress worker 55-year-old Mangilal Shah of Zirapur, district Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh, died of a heart attack. He was on his way to join Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Today’s result, meanwhile, has come as a major setback for Congress as the Jalandhar seat has traditionally been the grand old party’s stronghold, with it remaining undefeated from the seat since 1999.