Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar was leading by 25,598 votes over his nearest rival BJP contestant Swaran Salaria, as per early trends available for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll.

Jakhar, who is also Punjab Congress chief, is leading in all the nine assembly constituencies, as per initial trends available.

The counting started at 8 am.

Two counting centres have been set up for the counting of votes.

For six assembly constituencies of Gurdaspur district, the counting center has been set up at Sukhjindra College Gurdaspur and for three assembly constituencies of Pathankot district, the counting centre has been set up at the SD College in Pathankot.

Tight security arrangements have been made at the counting centres, official said.

The Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat has nine Assembly segments —— Bhoa, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Qadian, Fathegarh Churian, Dera Baba Nanak, Sujanpur and Batala.

The result will decide the fate of total 11 candidates including Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar, BJP’s Swaran Salaria and AAP’s Major General (retd) Suresh Khajuria.