Aam Aadmi Party’s Sushil Kumar Rinku today registered a thumping victory, by over 58,000 votes, over Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary—the candidate from Rinku’s former party, Congress—in the Jalandhar bypoll thus breaking the grand old party’s 24-year-old grip on the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat.

The Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat has been vacant since the demise of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary who passed away due to a heart attack on January 14 while participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra alongside Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Chaudhary’s demise necessitated a by-poll for the vacant constituency seat with the Congress fielding the deceased leader’s wife Karamjit Kaur in what was essentially a four-pronged battle between the grand old party, the AAP, the Akali-BSP combine and the BJP.

The ruling AAP dispensation had fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former Congress leader, who was dismissed from the Congress for “anti-party activities”, and later, on April 5, joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann.

Rinku was previously the Congress MLA from the Jalandhar West constituency in the previous assembly.

In a tweet, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the party humbly accepts the people’s mandate and congratulated the AAP and its winning candidate Sushil Rinku.

The official count stands with the AAP securing 3,02,097 votes, beating the closest rival, Congress that secured 2,43,450 votes, while the Akali-BSP combine came in at third with 1,58,354 and the BJP ending up at the tail end with 1,34,706 votes.

Senior AAP leader Raghav Chadha who is currently in Delhi where he is reportedly getting engaged to actor Parineeti Chopra said the people of Jalandhar, the home of his maternal grandparents, have made the day even more special and memorable for him.

The BJP had fielded Sardar Indar Iqbal Singh Atwal in hopes of gaining some ground for the saffron party in Punjab ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “lost” as the grand old party inched closer towards registering a monumental victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

In a tweet, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the BJP has lost and by extension that means that Prime Minister has lost as the saffron party had made its poll campaign a “referendum on the PM” which has been “decisively rejected.”

The senior Congress leader said that the party fought the election on by focussing on local issues such as livelihood and food security, price rise, farmer distress, electricity supply, joblessness and corruption—while the BJP based their campaign by attempting to polarise the masses.

Ramesh claimed that PM Modi “injected divisiveness and attempted polarisation”, adding that Karnataka voted for an engine based in Bengaluru that “will combine economic growth with social harmony.”

He said that despite PM Modi leading a vociferous campaign in the state, the BJP failed to retain power and thus the saffron party’s defeat also the means the defeat of the Prime Minister.

According to latest trends, the Congress is tipped to emerge victorious in the Karnataka polls with an absolute majority with veteran leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ruling out plans of a coalition with former ally HD Kumaraswamy’s Janata Dal (Secular).

The Congress is all but on the verge of forming a majority government in the state as Chief Minister Basavaraj implicitly conceded defeat saying that BJP wasn’t able to cross the “magic mark” despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Karnataka win will serve as a morale booster for the entire Opposition and help the Congress build momentum in their bid to dethrone the PM Modi-led BJP at the Centre in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

The Kerala Story landed in a soup ever since its teaser release last year. The Sudipto Sen’s film recently hit the silver screen and has left the audience divided. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioning the film during his election rally, Madhya Pradesh declared it tax-free. While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee banned the film from screening in the state.

However, the Bengal BJP women’s wing held a special screening of The Kerala Story on Wednesday despite a ban on the film, reports said. The announcement was made by the state head of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha, Falguni Patra.

Speaking to the media, Patra took a dig at CM Banerjee and said The Kerala Story is based on true events but the CM does not want the truth to be exposed. She claimed that people are excited to watch the film after it was banned in West Bengal and the film is being circulated through multiple platforms on social media.

On Monday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee banned the controversial film. She said the decision was taken to prevent any incident of hatred and violence in the state. Calling the film a distorted story, she also urged people to maintain peace in the state.

Following the ban, film producer Vipul Shah said the makers will take legal action against the move and fight under the provisions of the law.

Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti also slammed CM Banerjee and said the CM should take a lesson and urge youth to know about the atrocities taking place in the country. Moreover, the makers of the film have already moved to the Supreme Court challenging the ban on The Kerala Story in West Bengal.

Last week, the Kerala High Court refused to stay the release of the film stating that a secular society will accept the film for what it is.