New Delhi:
The bypoll results of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha and Vengara Assembly seats brought good news for Congress and its allies on Sunday.
Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar made a comeback by winning the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll by a huge margin after losing to BJP in 2014 elections.
While, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) a key partner of Congress-led UDF Opposition in Kerala retained the Vengara Assembly seat by defeating its CPI-M candidate in the bypoll.
In Gurdaspur bypoll, Jakhar, a close confidant of Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, trumped his BJP rival Swaran Salaria by a margin 1.93 lakh votes.
Polling for Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after the BJP’s sitting MP Vinod Khanna died of cancer at a hospital in Mumbai on April 27 this year. The BJP leader had represented Gurdaspur constituency in Lok Sabha earlier between 1998-2009 and 2014–2017.
While in Kerala, IUML candidate K N A Khader won the Vengara seat defeating CPI-M's P P Basheer by 23,310 votes.
The constituency had recorded a 72.12 percentage voter turnout during the by-election held on October 11.
The by-election was necessitated for the seat after sitting MLA P K Kunhalikutty quit following his election to parliament from Malappuram Lok Sabha segment that fell vacant after the death of IUML leader and former union minister E Ahmed in February last.
Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu after the result announcement said the win was a Diwali gift for Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.
Also read: Punjab by-election: Congress trounces BJP to take back Gurdaspur
"We have sent a beautiful Diwali gift packed with red ribbon to our would-be president Rahul Gandhi because it sets the tone,” he said.
