Gurdaspur Lok Sabha By-election: Congress wins prestige battle and bragging rights

Gurdaspur/Chandigarh: Congress party candidate Sunil Jakhar has won the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha defeating his nearest rival BJP’s Swaran Salaria by a margin of 1,93,219 votes.

The seat was held by the BJP and a by-election was necessitated after sitting MP, and veteran actor, Vinod Khanna died in April this year. Khanna had won this seat thrice - in 1998, 1999 and 2014.

Nearly 56 percent of the 15.22 lakh voter cast their votes in the October 11 by-election. Counting was held today in Gurdaspur and Pathankot towns.

Of the 11 candidates in the fray, Jakhar garnered 499752 votes, BJP’s Swaran Salaria managed 306533 and Aam Aadmi Party’s Maj Gen (retd) Suresh Khajuria finished a distant third with 23579 votes.

Congress Dubs Win as Referendum Against Centre

Jakhar, who is the state Congress chief, said, “People of Gurdaspur have sent a strong message of their resentment to policies pursued by Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.''

His party colleague and a minister in the Punjab government, former India cricketer, Navjot Singh Sudhu said, “This is a beautiful Diwali gift, packed with a red ribbon, for our would-be-party president Rahul Gandhi.''

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had endorsed Jakhar's nomination for the party ticket, posted a series of tweets, lauding the win. "The Gurdaspur by-election marks another major step in the revival of @INCIndia, it's clear that party is on upswing ahead of 2019 LS polls.”

So it’s 1,93,219..! Not much behind my expectation of a 2 lakh victory margin for @sunilkjakhar ji. What a vindication of our policies! — Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 15, 2017

Assure people of #Gurdaspur that every single promise made by @sunilkjakhar will be fulfilled and all development works will be fast-tracked — Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 15, 2017

Congratulations to @sunilkjakhar ji for his impressive win in #Gurdaspur bypoll, it's a victory for @INCPunjab policies & development agenda — Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) October 15, 2017

The Congress managed to repeat its performance in the recently held assembly elections where it had won seven out of the nine assembly segments in the Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency.

Sore Losers Make Allegations of Rigging

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Maj Gen Suresh Kumar Khajuria had left a counting centre alleging that the “official machinery had been misused.”

The BJP, and its ally the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), made similar allegations. Punjab BJP secretary Vineet Joshi and Salaria said, “They won by misusing the machinery. Everyone knows that even the sarpanches owing allegiance to the BJP and the SAD were warned that they will be dealt with strictly if the two allies got a lead in their respective areas in the by-poll.”

Perhaps having seen the writing on the wall, a day before the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha by-election results were announced, AAP dissolved its units in Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts.

Punjab AAP state secretary Gulshan Chhabra said the decision was taken after extensive deliberations and feedback from the AAP state president and Sangrur MP, Bhagwant Mann, and co-state president and Sunam MLA Aman Arora.