The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has secured a victory in the Jalandhar by-election, with its candidate Sushil Rinku defeating his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary. This victory marks the first time in 24 years that the Congress has been removed from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.
AAP’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal praised the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government for their work and expressed confidence that the party will soon attain a majority in the Lok Sabha. Kejriwal also emphasized that the party has only focused on the politics of work and not on caste or religion. “The people of Jalandhar have approved the works of the Bhagwant Mann government. We only do politics of work. We have entered the Lok Sabha and very soon we will get a majority in Lok Sabha,” he said.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency was vacant since January this year following the death of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary. The by-polls were held to fill the vacant seat. A total of 16,21,800 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the polls.
Nineteen candidates, including four women, were in the fray for the Jalandhar bypoll. The AAP fielded former MLA Sushil Rinku, who quit the Congress, while the Congress kept its faith in Karamjit Kaur, the wife of Santokh Chaudhary. The BJP fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh who quit the SAD to join the saffron party. Atwal is the son of former Punjab Assembly speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal. The SAD fielded its two-time MLA from Banga, Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is a medical practitioner by profession. The SAD candidate was backed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The Jalandhar seat was considered to be a stronghold of the Congress, which had remained undefeated here since 1999. However, the AAP’s victory has opened the doors of Lok Sabha for the party. Previously, Bhagwant Mann was the only AAP MP.