Jalandhar LS bypoll: AAP’s Rinku ahead of Cong’s Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by over 25,000 votes

Chandigarh, May 13 (PTI) AAP candidate Sushil Rinku is leading by more than 25,000 votes over his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, latest trends showed.

Out of the 8.87 lakh votes polled, counting of more than 4.15 lakh votes has been completed so far, according to the trends on the Election Commission website.

Rinku has, so far, polled 1,38,493 votes while Karamjit Kaur has got 1,13,164 votes, it showed. The AAP nominee is ahead by 25,329 votes.

Confident of their candidate’s win, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters celebrated Rinku’s lead over others in the fray for the seat.

BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was in the third spot while Shiromani Akali Dal’s Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is being backed by the BSP, was at the fourth spot, the website showed, the trends showed.

The bypoll, voting for which was held on May 10, was necessitated following the death of Karamjit Kaur’s husband and Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January.

Nineteen candidates contested the bypoll, which recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent. The turnout was well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.