Actor-politician Sunny Deol, who made a political debut with the Lok Sabha elections with a BJP ticket from the Gurdaspur seat, is leading with around 80,000 votes. BJP is trailing in Punjab and Congress is leading in eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats.
Sunny Deol, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a few weeks before the Lok Sabha elections, is one of the two BJP candidates who are leading in Punjab.
According to Election Commission data, Sunny Deol has managed to secure around 50 per cent of the votes in Gurdaspur while Congress's Sunil Jakhar is trailing with 43 per cent votes till 4 pm.
From the start of counting of votes at 8 am on Thursday, Sunny Deol maintained a lead over Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar.
BJP had been winning the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat for the past four general elections. Actor-politician Vinod Khanna, who passed away recently, won the Gurdaspur seat for four consecutive Lok Sabha elections.
However, Jakhar won the seat in a by-election in 2017 following the death of Vinod Khanna.
Speaking to reporters, 59-year-old Deol, who is popular for playing patriotic roles in movies like 'Border' and 'Gadar', said he was ecstatic over the initial trends coming during the counting of votes.
"I am feeling good and I am very happy. Modiji is winning. I was confident that people of this constituency (Gurdaspur) love me a lot and will ensure my victory," Deol said.
Sunny Deol said after winning, he would work for the people of Gurdaspur.
