Victory with big lead in Jalandhar West bypoll shows people happy AAP: Mann

Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday, 13 July, said the big margin of victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Jalandhar West assembly bypoll shows that people are "very happy" with the state government's work.

The bypoll was necessitated after Sheetal Angural resigned as the AAP legislator from the seat, and joined the BJP in March.

AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat defeated BJP's Angural by a margin of 37,325 votes. While Bhagat polled 55,246 votes while Angural secured 17,921, according to officials.

Congress nominee Surinder Kaur, who was in the third spot, got 16,757 votes.

"Congratulations to all for Aam Aadmi Party's great victory in the Jalandhar West Vidhan Sabha constituency by-elections. The victory with a big lead shows that people across Punjab are very happy with the work of our government. We will make Jalandhar West the 'best' as promised during the bypoll. Congratulations to Mohinder Bhagat ji," Mann said in a post on X.

Celebrations broke out at the residence of Bhagat in Jalandhar as his family members and supporters were ecstatic over the victory.

AAP activists burst firecrackers, distributed sweets and danced to the beats of 'dhol' over the victory of Bhagat. The AAP also took out a victory march in Jalandhar.

With this victory, the ruling party AAP will have 91 MLAs in the 117-member Punjab assembly.

The bypoll was being seen as a litmus test for the Punjab chief minister who wanted the AAP to register victory to retain this reserved constituency.

The victory was also important for Mann and the AAP as the party faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which it could win just three of the state's 13 parliamentary constituencies.