AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal: "We do the politics of work and seek votes from people for our work, and people have put a stamp on Bhagwant Mann government's work saying 'we are with you'.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — With a thumping victory by over 58,000 votes in Punjab’s Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has reentered the lower house of parliament.
In a four-cornered contest, Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former Congress MLA from the Jalandhar West constituency in the previous assembly who switched to AAP, defeated his closest rival, Congress’s Karamjit Kaur, the wife of Santokh Chaudhary, whose death during the Bharat Jodo Yatra necessitated the by-poll, media reports said.
AAP has thus broken Congress’s 24-year grip on the constituency.
The victory marks AAP’s re-entry to the Lok Sabha. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, AAP’s first Lok Sabha MP, resigned from the lower house after being elected as an MLA in the Punjab Assembly elections last year. His party could, however, not retain the seat in the by-polls.
AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the “unprecedented victory” is because of the Mann government’s good work in Punjab. “We do the politics of work and seek votes from people for our work, and people have put a stamp on Bhagwant Mann government’s work saying ‘we are with you’.
“This is a big message,” Mann, who was with Kejriwal, said.
“The election result has increased our responsibility and my confidence. We will work much harder to develop Punjab,” reports quoted him as saying.
Conceding defeat, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring congratulated the AAP and its candidate Sushil Rinku.
“We humbly accept people’s mandate! I thank party workers, volunteers, supporters and the entire @INCPunjab leadership, for the hard work & efforts put in by them for the #JalandharByElection. I congratulate Sushil Rinku & AAP party for the victory,” Warring tweeted.
AAP leader Raghav Chadha, who is reportedly getting engaged to actor Parineeti Chopra in Delhi today, tweeted that the home of his mother’s parents, Jalandhar, has made this day “even more special and memorable” for him.
AAP secured 3,02,097 votes, as it steadily widened the gap with Congress which got 2,43,450 votes. The Akali-BSP combine was third with 1,58,354, and the BJP in fourth place with 1,34,706 votes.
BJP had fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh, who quit the Shiromani Akali Dal to join the saffron party. Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi is being backed by the BSP.
The Jalandhar seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. He suffered a cardiac arrest during the party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Jalandhar’s Phillaur in January this year.
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Photo: IANS
