Sangrur by-election: As a major dent in its bastion Aam Aadmi Party lost prestigious Sangrur Parliamentary seat vacated by its lone Parliamentarian Bhagwant Mann to Simranjit Singh Mann of  Shiromani Akali Dal ( Amritsar) in the by-election on Sunday.

Simranjit Singh Mann, a known radical leader,  secured 2,53,154 votes and defeated his APP rival Gurnail Singh with a margin of 5,822 votes.  Gurnail Singh secured 2,47,332 votes.

The by election result is seen as the first major test to ascertain the popularity of three-month-old AAP government in Punjab.  The Sangrur Lok Sabha seat seat went vacant after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann contested  and won from Dhuri Assembly seat in the assembly election. The Sangrur seat is considered prestigious for APP as Mann had won the Lok Sabha seat twice in 2014 and 2019.

Losing the seat is considered a big blow to the popularity of ruling APP in Punjab  as three month back the party had swept the assembly elections on the plank of development work and stern action against corruption, illegal mining and other “mafias” in the state.  APP had won 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly in the 2022 election.  APP had then clinched all the nine Assembly seats in the Sangrur Parliamentary constituency.

The Sangrur  Lok Sabha by-election also holds significance for the fact that SAD leader, Simranjit Singh Mann had recently raised the Khalistan issue once again at a meeting convened by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak committee (SGPC). His twitter profile says that he is striving for Khalistan, the sovereign state for Sikhs. Mann, in the meeting had demanded SGPC to support the pro-khalistan resolution, which he claimed was unanimously passed in the year 1946 by SGPC.

Kewal Singh Dhillon, the BJP candidate polled  66,298 votes while the Congress candidate, Dalvir Singh secured 79,668 votes. The by-election result is also seen as a big jolt to SAD, led by the Badal family as its candidate, Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana, was only able to secure 44,428 votes.

Sangrur, by-election held on June 23rd saw a low voter turn out of little over than 45 %.

I am grateful to our voters of Sangrur for having elected me as your representative in parliament. I will work hard to ameliorate the sufferings of our farmers, farm-labour, traders and everyone in my constituency.

— Simranjit Singh Mann (@SimranjitSADA) June 26, 2022