Congress sweeps Shahkot, gets 2/3rd majority in House

JALANDHAR: Congress on Thursday comfortably won the Shahkot by-election and in the process achieved a two-thirds majority in the Punjab assembly. Of the 117 seats in the House, the Amarinder Singh-led government now has 78 seats.
Congress candidate Hardev Singh 'Laddi' Sherowalia defeated his nearest opponent, Shiromani Akali Dal's Naib Singh Kohar, by a margin of 38,802 votes. This is a major achievement given that Shahkot is seen as a Panthic seat which SAD had not lost in 41 years. Congress had won the seat in 1992 but at that time SAD was not in the fray as all Akali groups had boycotted the election.

Congress's win can be attributed to the complete decimation of AAP this time. While Akalis' vote share dipped only by 2,668 votes, AAP lost 39,110 votes compared to the election in 2017.

AAP's candidate, Ratan Singh Kakkar Kalan could muster up just 1,900 this time. AAP's candidate in 2017, Amarjit Singh Thind, had polled around 41,000 votes but most of these seemed to have shifted away from the party in just one year. Thind too has joined SAD now.