Punjab bypoll: AAP's Mohinder Bhagat wins Jalandhar West seat by 37,325 votes

Chandigarh: Punjab's ruling party AAP retained the Jalandhar West assembly seat on Saturday as its candidate Mohinder Bhagat defeated BJP's Sheetal Angural by a margin of 37,325 votes in a bypoll.

Bhagat polled 55,246 votes while Angural secured 17,921 votes, according to officials. Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, who was at the third spot, got 16,757 votes.

Celebrations broke out at the residence of Bhagat in Jalandhar as his family members and supporters were ecstatic over the victory in the reserve assembly constituency.

AAP activists burst firecrackers, distributed sweets and danced to the beats of 'dhol' over the victory of Bhagat.

With this victory, the AAP will now have 91 MLAs in the 117-member Punjab assembly.

On his victory, Bhagat, 66, said voters gave their mandate in favour of the AAP because of the works undertaken by the Bhagwant Mann-led dispensation. "From this result, it is clear that people are liking the works of the state government," he said.

Bhagat maintained lead in counting of votes from the first round till the completion of 13 rounds.

Congress candidate Surinder Kaur remained at the second spot till nine rounds of counting and thereafter, BJP's Angural occupied the position.

SAD candidate Surjit Kaur was at the fourth spot and BSP nominee Binder Kumar was at the fifth spot.

The bypoll was necessitated after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Angural as the AAP legislator. He joined the BJP in March.

Polling in the seat took place on Wednesday and a voter turnout of 54.98 per cent was recorded, a sharp drop from the 67 per cent the assembly segment saw in the 2022 state elections.

The bypoll was being seen as a litmus test for the Punjab chief minister who would like his party to register victory to retain this reserved constituency.

The victory was important for Punjab Chief Minister Mann as his AAP faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which it could win just three of the state's 13 parliamentary constituencies.