Sangrur: As the counting of votes for the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll is underway, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann is leading with 2,30,159 votes, according to the Election Commission.
As per the trends in the counting, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gurmail Singh is trailing at the second position with 2,25,556 votes.
Further, Bharatiya Janata Party's Kewal Singh Dhillon, Congress' Dalbir Singh Goldy and SAD's Kamaldeep Kaur got 3,529, 3,446 and 1587 votes so far.
Sangrur is known as the stronghold of AAP incumbent Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from where he had won the parliamentary seat in 2014 and 2019. The seat fell vacant after Mann resigned as MP following his victory from the Dhuri constituency in the state assembly polls.
The counting of votes on Sunday began amid tight security. "A company of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and 600 police personnel are deployed," said Superintendent of Police, Barnala.
Besides Sangrur, counting of votes of bypolls in two other Lok Sabha constituencies - Rampur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh began on Sunday. Further, the counting of votes is also underway for the bypolls of seven assembly seats spread across Tripura, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.
The bypolls were held on June 23.
In Tripura, assembly bypoll was held in Agartala, Jubarajnagar, Surma and Town Bardowali.
The other constituencies where assembly bypolls were held were Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, Mandar in Jharkhand's Ranchi district and Atmakuru in Andhra Pradesh. The bypolls were necessitated in these seats due to the resignations of the legislators in two seats, disqualification of an MLA in one, and the death of one of the MLAs midterm.
The bypolls in Tripura were crucial for Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha who replaced Biplab Kumar Deb last month. The dentist-turned politician himself is a candidate and is fighting his first-ever direct election to save his CM seat.
The bye-elections to the Azamgarh seat were necessitated due to the resignation of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly as an MLA in the elections earlier this year.
Seats fell vacant in Azamgarh and Rampur after Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan resigned as MPs from the seats after winning in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Akhilesh was elected as an MLA from the Karhal assembly seat while Azam Khan was elected from the Rampur Sadar constituency.
Delhi's Rajinder Nagar seat remained vacated after the AAP MP Raghav Chadha was nominated for the Rajya Sabha from Punjab on March 21.
The AAP had fielded Durgesh Pathak for filling the Chadha's vacant seat of Rajinder Nagar against the former Bharatiya Janata Party councillor Rajesh Bhatia and Congress' Prem Lata.
