Punjab: Congress wrests Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat from BJP

CHANDIGARH: The Congress won the by-election to the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency with a 1.93-lakh-vote margin, and the state’s ruling party termed it as a total rejection of the BJP-Shiromani Akali Dal combine.

Congress candidate Sunil Kumar Jakhar polled 4,99,752 votes, while BJP’s Sawarn Singh Salaria got 3,06,553.

AAP candidate Suresh Khajuria couldn’t save his security deposit, getting just 23,579 votes. BJP’s Vinod Khanna had won the seat in 2014 LS election by a 1.35-lakh-vote margin.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of the actorturned-politician earlier this year. The election was held on Wednesday and results were announced on Sunday.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh said “the massive win” for the Congress showed the “complete denunciation of the corrupt and immoral BJP and SAD”. The result also underlined the political annihilation of the AAP in the state, he added.

“People have vented their anger against demonetisation and GST by making me an MP with a huge margin of votes. I had asked people to vote for me and against BJP’s economic and communal agenda,” Jakhar said.

Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency comprises nine assembly constituencies: Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Qadian, Dera Baba Nanak, Sujanpur, Fatehgarh Churian, Bhoa, Batala and Pathankot. Jakhar got a lead in all the nine.