AAP candidate Sushil Rinku is leading by more than 25,000 votes over his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, latest trends showed.
Out of the 8.87 lakh votes polled, counting of more than 4.15 lakh votes has been completed so far, according to the trends on the Election Commission website.
Rinku has, so far, polled 1,38,493 votes while Karamjit Kaur has got 1,13,164 votes, it showed. The AAP nominee is ahead by 25,329 votes.
Confident of their candidate's win, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters celebrated Rinku's lead over others in the fray for the seat.
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BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was in the third spot while Shiromani Akali Dal's Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is being backed by the BSP, was at the fourth spot, the website showed, the trends showed.
Counting of votes began today for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll that witnessed a four-corner battle among the BJP, Congress, SAD and the ruling AAP.
Counting began at 8 am, officials said.
A tight security arrangement has been put in place in and around the counting centres set up at the office of the Director Land Records and Sports College Complex in Kapurthala Road.
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Prominent among the 19 candidates in the fray are the AAP's Sushil Rinku, Congress' Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, BJP's Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, and the Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi.
The bypoll, held on May 10, recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent, the officials said. It was well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Jalandhar seat had fallen vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January.
Who fielded whom?
The AAP fielded former MLA Rinku, who joined the party after quitting the Congress, while Atwal moved to the BJP from the SAD. Backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the SAD fielded Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, its two-time MLA from Banga, whereas the Congress nominated Chaudhary's wife Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.
The ruling AAP is hoping to mark its presence in the Lok Sabha by registering a victory in the bypoll. A win will be a boost for the party, which had faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha bypoll in Sangrur, just three months after it stormed to power in Punjab in March 2022.
All about the bypolls
The bypoll is also being seen as a test of the one-year performance of the Bhagwant Mann-led government, which has been promoting its moves to provide free electricity and jobs to the youths, regularise services of contractual employees, action against corruption and opening mohalla clinics, among others.
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The Congress, on the other hand, is looking to retain Jalandhar, a traditional stronghold for the party, which has remained undefeated from the seat since 1999.
The stakes are also high for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the SAD after their defeats in the assembly election. The two parties were allies in Punjab before the SAD broke off ties over the now-repealed farm laws in 2020.
(With PTI Inputs)
