BJP loses Gurdaspur LS seat to Cong, AAP bites dust
Monday, 16/10/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=182042&boxid=65368&uid=&dat=2017-10-16
Gurdaspur : Maintaining its winning streak from the assembly elections, Punjab’s ruling Congress secured an emphatic win in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat on Sunday. Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar won by a margin of over 1.93 lakh votes. Jakhar, who was in the lead right from the time the vote count began on Sunday morning, extended the margin over his BJP rival Swaran Salaria after each of the 14 rounds of counting.
Congress leaders and workers started had celebrating the impending victory by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets in Gurdaspur, Chandigarh and other places even before the final result was declared. “We won the election because of the positive policies of the Congress. People have faith in the party,” Jakhar, who was termed an ‘outsider’ in the constituency by his opponents, told the media after his victory
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh hailed the ‘unprecedented’ Congress victory ‘as a total rejection of the anti-people policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).’ “The massive win for Congress candidate shows the people’s complete denunciation of the corrupt and immoral BJP and SAD,” Amarinder said, adding that it also underlined the political annihilation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state.
“The over 1.93 lakh margin of victory has not only more than compensated for the 1.36 lakh vote defeat of Congress candidate Pratap Singh Bajwa against BJP’s Vinod Khanna in 2014 but has surpassed even the 1.51 lakh lead by which Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder of Congress had won in 1980,” Amarinder pointed out. The seat was earlier held by the BJP, which had won it in 2014. The seat fell vacant in April following the passing away of veteran actor Vinod Khanna, a four-time MP from the seat. None of the top BJP leader had campaigned for the party candidate.
Highlights
Congress’ Hindu candidate wins Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat after a gap of 46 years.
AAP candidate Major Gen Suresh Kumar Khajuria (Retd) lost his security deposit.
We have won the election thanks to positive policies of the state government, says Jakahr
Key DETAILS
Jakhar polled 4,99,752 votes while Swaran Salaria polled 3,06,533 votes
AAP nominee SureshKhajuria bagged 23,579 votes
Vinod Khanna of BJP won this seat in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014
