With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Sushil Kumar Rinku maintaining a lead of over 58 thousand in the bypoll for Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday conceded defeat before official declaration of results.
“We humbly accept people’s mandate! I thank party workers, volunteers, supporters and the entire Punjab Congress leadership, for the hard work and efforts put in by them for the Jalandhar bypoll . I congratulate Sushil Rinku and the AAP party for the victory,” Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said in a tweet.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said,”We thank the voters of Jalandhar and accept the mandate with humility in the true democratic traditions of our party. We congratulate the winner Sushil Kumar Rinku and @ Aam Aadmi Party and hope that they will live up to the voters’ expectations,”.
“I also thank all the leaders and workers of Shiromani Akali Dal – Bahujan Samaj Party combine for working hard and putting up a brave fight against all odds including the might of two governments, the Centre and the state,” he said in a tweet.
A Congress stronghold, Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat remained with the Congress since 1999. This reserved seat fell vacant after Congress’ Member of Parliament (MP), Santokh Singh Chaudhary (76), died of a heart attack during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab this January.
By polling over 34 per cent of the total votes, Rinku – a former Congress legislator who joined AAP days ahead of the election – maintained lead over his nearest rival and the Congress candidate Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary from the very first round of counting. The Congress got about 27 per cent votes.