In a major setback to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress candidate Charanjit Singh Channi won from the Jalandhar constituency of Punjab by a comfortable margin of 1,75,993, as per the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI). Channi competed against BJP candidate Sushil Kumar Rinku and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Pawan Kumar Tinu.
The Congress candidate gained a total of 3,90,053 votes, while BJP’s Rinku secured a total of 2,14,060 votes. AAP’s Tinu managed to win 2,08,889 votes. The polling in Jalandhar was held in the final phase of the Lok Sabha polls- June 1. The voter turnout was recorded at 59.70% against 63.04% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In Punjab, the Congress is currently leading on seven seats while the AAP is ahead on three seats, as per the ECI. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is ahead on one seat. Meanwhile, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is leading on 293 seats while the INDIA bloc is ahead on 233 seats out of a total of 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a third straight term in power, while the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party. Most exit polls predicted a straight term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with quite a few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Congress party and its allies dismissed the exit polls as “orchestrated” and a work of “fantasy”, asserting that the opposition INDIA bloc will form the next government at the Centre. Strict security has been put in place for the smooth conduct of counting of votes for over 8,000 candidates in this general election.
Two polls predicted the BJP would also improve its numbers from the 303 seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2019 elections, NDA wrested 353 seats, of which the BJP won 303 alone. The Opposition’s UPA got only 93 seats of which the Congress got 52. Even before the counting of the votes, the Bharatiya Janata Party won one seat of Surat Lok Sabha.
The Lok Sabha elections were held across the country in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.
