Congress leader Preneet Kaur has won the Patiala seat
Former union minister and Congress leader Preneet Kaur has won the Patiala assembly constituency in Punjab, one of the state's two seats to hold by-polls last week.
The Congress had pulled out all the stops to retain Patiala, a prestigious seat held earlier by Preneet Kaur's husband and Patiala royal Amarinder Singh, now a Congress MP.
Amarinder Singh defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Amritsar in the national election three months ago.
Preneet Kaur today won by a margin of over 23,000 votes, an election official said.
She had lost the Lok Sabha election from Patiala to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
This time, AAP's candidate Harjeet Singh has lost badly from the Patiala assembly seat; he has lost his deposit, having won only about 5,700 votes.
Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu of the ruling Akali Dal has retained the Talwandi Sabo assembly seat. By-polls took place here after Mr Sidhu quit the Congress to cross over to the Akali Dal. He has defeated his Congress rival Harminder Singh Jassi.
Voting for both seats took place Aug 21. The opposition Congress and AAP have accused the Akali Dal of misusing the official machinery to manipulate the polls.
In the 117-member Punjab Assembly, the Akali Dal has a strength of 56 legislators, its ally BJP has 12, the Congress 44 and independents three.
To gain a simple majority, the Akali Dal needs two more members to take its tally to 58.