AAP’s Sushil Rinku wins; state Congress ‘we humbly accept people’s mandate’

AAP’s Sushil Rinku wins; state Congress chief Warring says ‘we humbly accept people’s mandate’
Jalandhar: The AAP has won the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, a Congress bastion for decades, with a margin of 58,691 votes. AAP candidate Sushil Rinku, who switched parties days before the polls, is now the new MP of Jalandhar.

The Congress came second while the SAD and BJP came third and fourth, respectively. Registering a decisive victory in the constituency, the AAP has won with a huge margin, maintaining a lead over the Congress in every single round of counting. Traditionally, a Congress bastion, the Jalandhar reserved seat has been retained by towering Dalit leaders of the Congress for years.

The seat was won by Congress leader Mohinder Singh Kaypee in 2009. In both the 2014 and 2019 elections, Congress leader Santokh Singh Chaudhary emerged victorious.

In the past five decades, the Congress has lost the seat only four times. Interestingly, the Congress’s five out of the nine candidates had won in the Jalandhar assembly segments in 2022 despite a massive AAP wave in the state.

The bypoll was necessitated by the demise of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary, who died suddenly during the Bharat Jodo Yatra earlier this year.