Sunil Jakhar wins Gurdaspur Lok Sabha byelection with huge margin

Chandigarh, October 15
Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar on Sunday won the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha byelection by beating his nearest BJP rival Swaran Salaria with a huge margin of 1,93,219 votes, while Aam Aadmi Party candidate Major General (retd) Suresh Khajuria finished a distant third.
At the end of thirteen rounds of counting, Jakhar was leading by 1,82,160 votes over Salaria.
The Congress had secured 4,56,250 votes, BJP 2,74,090 and AAP 21,509 till 13th round

The Sucha Singh Langah episode seemed to have damaged the BJP, particularly in Dera Baba Nanak where the former SAD minister remained halqa in charge for 10 years.
According to political observers, the Langah episode made a dent in Jat Sikh votes. This time, the Jat Sikh votes, which would have normally gone to the BJP, have gone to the Congress.
GST also seemed to have hit the saffron party hard in trading towns of Batala and Pathankot, where Jakhar took a commutative lead of 7,000 votes, the observers said.

The bypoll, held on October 11, was being seen as a barometer for the popularity of the six-month-old Congress government in the state.
The seat was contested by Congress’ Punjab unit chief Sunil Jakhar, BJP’s Swaran Salaria and AAP’s Major General Suresh Khajuria (retd).
It had fallen vacant following the demise of BJP MLA Vinod Khanna in April.
The Gurdaspur parliamentary seat has nine Assembly segments—Bhoa, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Qadian, Fatehgarh Churian, Dera Baba Nanak, Sujanpur and Batala.

Counting centres had been set up at Sukhjindra College in Gurdaspur for the six Assembly constituencies and for the rest three constituencies of Pathankot district, it had been set up at the SD College in Pathankot.

BJP leaders had started leaving the counting centres after Jakhar took an unassailable lead. Aam Aadmi Party candidate Major Gen Khajuria too left the counting centre midway through the counting.