Bypoll Results: BJP Ally Apna Dal(S) Retains Chhanbey; Suar's Azam Khan Era Ends; AAP Gets Jalandhar

The Aam Aadmi Party won the crucial Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll with a significant margin while the Samajwadi Party lost the Suar assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh, marking an end of the Azam Khan-era. The seat fell vacant in February, following the disqualification of two-term legislator and SP leader’s son Abdullah Azam Khan after a Moradabad court sentenced him to two years in jail in a 15-year-old case. The Chhanbey reserved assembly was won by BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal).

BJD candidate won the Jharsuguda seat in Odisha, while United Democratic Party’s Synshar Kupar Roy Thabah won in Meghalaya’s Sohiong. The counting of votes for the bypoll in five seats — Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat as well as four assemblies in UP, Odisha and Meghalaya — began at 8 am on Saturday.

Sushil Rinku AAP’s Sole Lok Sabha MP

Sushil Rinku’s Jalandhar bypoll win has made him the sole MP of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Lok Sabha. He left the Congress and joined the ruling AAP in Punjab ahead of the poll. He polled 3,02,279 votes as per the ECI data.

Rinku will be the sole MP of the AAP in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, Punjab chief minster Bhagwant Mann had been the Lok Sabha MP in 2014 and 2019, but after the AAP stormed to power in Punjab in the 2022 assembly polls, he vacated the Sangrur parliamentary seat. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) had won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat bypoll last year.

AAP Calls Jalandhar Bypoll Victory ‘Historic’

Punjab’s ruling party AAP dubbed its victory in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll as “historic”, saying it was a stamp of people on the work done by the Bhagwant Mann-led government over the past year. Party candidate Sushil Rinku won the Jalandhar parliamentary seat after defeating Congress’s Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes. Rinku polled 3,02,279 votes while Chaudhary secured 2,43,588 votes, as per ECI data.

Opposition parties Congress, BJP and SAD accepted the mandate of the people and congratulated the AAP for its victory. Addressing the media in Jalandhar after Rinku’s win in the bypoll, Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said it was a “historic” victory and thanked the people of Jalandhar parliamentary seat for reposing faith in them.

“The AAP registered a historic victory from Jalandhar bypoll,” said Cheema, who was the party’s election incharge for the bypoll. He also said voters of Jalandhar parliamentary constituency rejected the false propaganda spread by the opposition parties against the AAP government.

Cheema said the “guarantees” promised by the AAP before the 2022 assembly polls, were being fulfilled by the state government. “We went to people with guarantees like giving free electricity, opening of mohalla clinics, schools of eminence and the people of Jalandhar seat put a stamp on them,” said Cheema.

BJP Ally Apna Dal Wins Chhanbey Seat

BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) candidate Rinki Kol defeated SP’s Kirti Kol to win the Chhanbey (SC) assembly seat by a margin of 9,587 votes. While Rinki polled 76,203 votes, Kirti bagged 66,616 votes.

The Apna Dal(S) candidate secured 46.7 percent votes polled, while the SP candidate’s vote share stood at 40.82 percent, as per the ECI. Congress candidate Ajay Kumar could muster only 1.56 percent votes, a little more than the NOTA share, which stood at 1.51 percent.

The BSP did not field any candidates from the seat. In all, eight candidates were in the fray. The total votes polled in this assembly constituency was over 1.63 lakh.

Apna Dal(S) chief and union minister Anupriya Patel is the MP from Mirzapur. The Chhanbey seat fell vacant following the death of sitting Apna Dal(S) MLA Rahul Prakash Kol in February.

UDP Candidate Synshar Kupar Wins in Meghalaya

Synshar Kupar Roy Thabah, the candidate from the United Democratic Party, emerged victorious in the Sohiong assembly seat in Meghalaya. He secured a convincing victory, surpassing the candidate nominated by the NPP by a margin of over 3,400 votes.

The election was held on May 10, as voting was adjourned due to the death of UDP candidate HDR Lyngdoh ahead of the assembly polls on February 27. With the win, UDP’s strength in the 60-member House increased to 12. The NPP has 28 MLAs.

BJD’s Dipali Das Wins Jharsuguda assembly seat

The ruling BJD in Odisha retained the Jharsuguda assembly seat on Saturday, as its candidate Dipali Das defeated her nearest BJP rival Tankadhar Tripathy by 48,721 votes, an election official said.

Das secured a total of 1,07,198 votes, while Tripathy bagged 58,477 votes. Congress candidate Tarun Pandey came third with 4,496 votes, the Election Commission official said.

Dipali is the daughter of Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, whose assassination in January allegedly by a police officer necessitated the by-poll.

AAP’s Sushil Rinku wins Jalandhar

AAP’s Sushil Rinku won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll by defeating his nearest rival, Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary of the Congress, by a margin of 58,691 votes, as per the ECI data. The AAP that emerged victorious in the high-stakes election in Punjab secured a vote share of 34.05 percent, up from 2.5 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Rinku, who joined the AAP after quitting the Congress before the bypoll, polled 3,02,279 votes, while Chaudhary secured 2,43,588 votes, according to data. Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who was backed by the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), finished the poll race at the third spot, while the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was fourth.

With this victory, the AAP wrested the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency from the Congress. The seat with a considerable Dalit presence was considered a bastion of the Congress.

(With PTI inputs)