Chandigarh, Jul 13 (PTI) AAP’s Jalandhar West assembly bypoll candidate Mohinder Bhagat appears to be heading for a victory from the seat in Punjab as he was leading by more than 23,000 votes against his nearest rival and Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, officials said on Saturday.
Bhagat, a leader of the ruling party in Punjab, was ahead by 23,240 votes after eight rounds of counting of votes that began at 8 am at the Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women here. There will be a total of 13 rounds of counting.
BJP candidate Sheetal Angural was at the third spot, according to the trends.
Celebrations broke out at the residence of Bhagat in Jalandhar as his family members and supporters were ecstatic over the lead.
Bhagat has been maintaining lead in counting of votes from the first round of counting.
BSP nominee Binder Kumar was at the fourth spot while SAD’s Surjit Kaur was at fifth.
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 is important for Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant 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.
