Jalandhar/Kapurthala, October 16
The ruling Congress in Punjab today won both Kapurthala and Garhshankar Assembly seats.
The Congress retained the Kapurthala seat, as its candidate Sukhjinder Rana defeated her rival former Punjab minister Raghbir Singh of the SAD by a margin of 13,290 votes.
In Garhshankar, the BJP was defeated by the Congress, as the latter’s Luv Kumar Goldi gave a crushing defeat to Mohinder Pal Mann of the BJP by a margin of 18,080 votes.
The Congress surprised poll pundits and stunned its rival the SAD-BJP combine as it won the Garhshankar Assembly seat even as it had put up its candidate at the seat after a gap of 19 years.
The Congress candidate Luv Kumar Goldi secured 37,378 votes as against 19,298 votes secured by his rival Mohinder Pal Maan of the BJP. The CPM candidate Maha Singh Rori trailed with 9,129 votes, while Racpal Raju of the BSP and
dissident BSP candidate Shingara Ram Sahungra bagged 4,139 and 5,989 votes, respectively. Gurmej Jhalli of the Lok Jana Shakti polled 754 votes, followed by, independents Onkar Singh (205), Amritpal (227) and Jaipal (362) votes. The constituency had a total of 1,19,192 votes, of which about 40,000 were of Dalits.
As the results were declared at around 12 noon by SDM Kulbir Singh, jubilation gripped the Congress camp, led by Punjab minister Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, who was also the in charge of the Congress campaign. The Congress workers celebrated their victory by taking out a procession on the streets of the Garhshankar township. On the other hand, Mr Mohinder Pal Maan, who was accompanied by the state BJP chief Mr Avinash Rai Khanna, reportedly left the counting centre towards the completion of the fifth round. Mr Maan alleged that the poll was not fair and that the Congress won because of its high-handedness.
In Kapurthala, garlanding ceremonies, dhol dhamaka and distribution of ladoos marked celebrations in the Congress camp soon after the declaration of the byelection results of the Kapurthala segment here today.
Even though the poll battle was being seen as a close fight, the results indicated a one-sided swing, as the Congress candidate, Ms Sukhjinder Rana, won the seat by a comfortable margin of 13,290 votes. Ms Rana got 47,890 votes, leaving behind the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) candidate, Mr Raghbir Singh, who got 34,600 votes.
From the very first round, the Congress candidate started taking the lead. The first lead was that of 315 votes but in the second round it jumped to 1,133 votes. Subsequently, the lead kept on increasing and the victory seemed in sight.
Even before the last round of the counting was to end, the Congress supporters started garlanding Ms Sukhjinder Rana and Rana Gurjit Singh.
Celebrations were also seen at Ekta Bhavan, the office of the Congress, as hundreds of supporters were waiting to give a warm welcome to the family. The SAD (Badal) office at Ramneek Chowk, on the contrary, remained shut down.
