Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a major setback on Sunday as it lost the parliamentary byelection to the Sangrur constituency. The return of Simranjit Singh Mann, the man who won the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-polls in 2022 is in sharp focus.
Simranjit Singh Mann will enter the parliament, after 18 long years, winning the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat by securing 2,53,154 votes. He defeated his nearest rival of the AAP, Gurmail Singh, by 5,822 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kewal Singh Dhillon got 66,171 votes, and Congress’s Dalvir Singh Goldy got 78,844 votes.
The by-election is being seen as the first major test to ascertain the popularity of the three-month-old AAP government, which went into the Assembly polls earlier this year on the plank of its development work, and stern action against corruption, illegal mining and other “mafias” in the State. Losing Sangrur is being seen as a big blow against the party, especially for Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, as the constituency is his home turf.
After his win, Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann said, “I am grateful to our voters of Sangrur for having elected me as your representative in Parliament. I will work hard to ameliorate the sufferings of our farmers, farm labour, traders and everyone in my constituency.”
In 1989, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann) now SAD (Amritsar) won six seats according to the Election Commission of India. However, five elected MPs offered support to Mann’s party thus making it 11 seats out of 13 in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls. But he did not enter the parliament after being stopped for carrying a kirpan