After Aam Aadmi Party's victory in Jalandhar byelection, party's national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lauded the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government and said that the party has entered the Lok Sabha now and will soon attain majority as well. Kejriwal also said that the party has only done politics of work and not of caste or religion.
"The people of Jalandhar have approved the works of Bhagwant Mann government. We only do politics of work. We have entered the Lok Sabha and very soon we will get majority in lok sabha," Kejriwal said. "We only do politics of work, neither we dopolitics of religion nor we do politics of caste. We seek votes on the basis of that only. Jalandhar by-election shows that people have stamped on Bhagwant Mann's government to keep working like this, we are with you, he added. AAP candidate Sushil Rinku won the bypoll and defeated his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary.
Congress has been removed from the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat after 24 years. The victory registered by Aam Aadmi Party's Sushil Rinku has again opened the doors of Lok Sabha for the party. Earlier Bhagwant Mann was the only AAP MP. Since 1999, the Jalandhar seat was held by the Congress.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary due to a cardiac arrest during the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra in January. It witnessed a four-cornered electoral battle involving the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency was vacant since January this year following the demise of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary who collapsed while walking alongside Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra on January 14. He passed away due to a cardiac attack. The bypolls in the seat were necessitated after Chaudhary's death.
A total of 16,21,800 voters -- 8,44,904 males, 7,76,855 females and 41 third-gender voters -- were eligible to exercise their franchise in the Jalandhar bypoll. Nineteen candidates, including four women, are in the fray. 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 seat is considered to be a stronghold of the Congress, which has remained undefeated here since 1999.