Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypolls: AAP maintains huge lead

PUNJAB: As per the early trends by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leading at the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, which went to by-polls on May 10 and the counting for which began at 8.00 am on Saturday.

AAP's Sushil Rinku is now leading by more than 23000 votes over nearest rival Congress' Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.

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.

The Jalandhar by-polls were held on 10 May and recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent, well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The byelection for Jalandhar Lok Sabha, one of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab was necessitated after sitting MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary of Congress passed away on January 14 this year following a cardiac arrestduring the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.

As per the officials, all EVMs and VVPAT machines were kept in the 'strong room' after the voting and three-layer security has been installed.

In the elections, Congress has fielded Chaudhary's widow Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary from Jalandhar, while BJP has fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has given a ticket to Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) or SAD(A) has placed its hopes on Gurjant Singh Kattu to wrest this seat.