Chandigarh: Ruling SAD on Tuesday won the bypoll to Khadoor Sahib Assembly seat, with party candidate Ravinder Singh Brahmpura defeating his nearest rival Independent candidate Bhupinder Singh by a margin of 65,664 votes.


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Main opposition parties Congress and Aam Aadmi Party had stayed out of the contest.


Brahmpura defeated Bhupinder Singh, who had broken away from the Congress and entered the fray as an Independent.


 


Punjab's Chief Electoral Officer V K Singh said that at the end of 15 rounds of counting, Brahmpura had polled 83,080 votes as against 17,416 in favour of Bhupinder.


"Ravinder Brahmpura has won by 65664 votes," he said.


Another Independent candidate Sumel Singh Sidhu could only poll 2,243 votes. He had parted ways with AAP to contest the poll.


The bypoll was held as the seat fell vacant after Congress MLA Ramanjit Singh Sikki resigned in protest against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib last year.


Congress had "boycotted" the polls, saying the issue on which Sikki had resigned was still unresolved.


Akali Dal workers celebrated the victory of their party in the bypolls by bursting firecrackers, dancing to the beats of drums and distributing sweets to people.


Speaking to reporters, Brahmpura said the people had endorsed the policies and programmes of the SAD-BJP Government.


"I want to thank the people and my party workers. I also want to thank and give credit for this victory to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM and our party president Sukhbir Singh," he said.


The winning candidate's father and SAD MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura said that people have voted for development.


He did not agree with the view that it was a one-sided victory for SAD in the absence of opposition parties like Congress and AAP, stating that these parties had "run away" fearing their defeat in the polls.


"Development is our priority, we will further accelerate development in our constituency and in entire Punjab. Today's victory will definitely have a big impact on the upcoming 2017 polls and Badal Sahib (CM) will be back as Chief Minister of Punjab for the sixth time," he said.