Congress loses 24-year grip on Jalandhar, AAP re-enters LS

JALANDHAR: Aam Aadmi Party won the Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll on Saturday, slicing through Congress's 24-year grip to get its lone member in the Lok Sabha, reports IP Singh.
Victor Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former Congress MLA who was inducted into AAP only last month, got the "Ikk Mauka (one chance)" he had sought, albeit for a truncated term of around 11 months till next year's general election.
Rinku won by 58,691 votes over Karamjit Kaur, the Congress nominee and widow of previous MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary, whose death in January this year during Bharat Jodo Yatra necessitated the bypoll. The SAD-BSP combine came third. BJP was pushed to fourth spot.
For AAP, the win could not be sweeter. It had been routed in the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll three months after sweeping the 2022 assembly elections. Bhagwant Mann was AAP's Sangrur MP but resigned to take over as CM after the landslide. AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal said the Jalandhar win reflects people's renewed faith in the Mann-led government.
Watch Punjab: AAP candidate Sushil Rinku wins Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election