AAP's Raghav Chadha On Likely Reason For Party's Defeat In Punjab Bypoll

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Sunday blamed the downfall in the vote share of other political parties including Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP behind his party's loss in Sangrur bypolls, saying that others loss became gain of winning candidate Simranjit Mann.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Chadha, who was instrumental in AAP's landslide victory in Punjab Assembly elections held earlier this year, said though AAP has lost the seat, it retained its vote share with a meagre fall from 37 per cent to 35 per cent.

It was a battle of prestige for both AAP, the ruling party in Punjab, and Bhagwant Mann who represented the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat since 2014 and resigned after taking over as the Chief Minister earlier this year.

"We humbly accept Sangrur's verdict. We will certainly work harder. While AAP retained its vote share with a meagre fall from 37% to 35%, all other parties INC, SAD & BJP lost deposits! Vote share: SAD from 24% to 6% INC from 27% to 11% Others loss became Simranjit Mann's gain," Mr Chadha, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab tweeted.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday won the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll with 2,53,154 votes. AAP had fielded its Sangrur district president Gurmail Singh.

The bypoll in Bhagwant Mann's stronghold Sangrur was necessitated after he resigned as Member of Parliament following his victory from the Dhuri constituency in the state assembly polls.

"This is a great win for our party. We have defeated all national parties in this bypoll. My priority will be to raise the issue of the poor economic condition of Sangrur including the condition of farmers under debt. We will work with the Punjab government," said Simranjit Mann.

"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, he added.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal congratulated Mann and said, "I sincerely and wholeheartedly congratulate Sardar Simranjit Singh Mann and his party on their electoral victory in Sangrur parliamentary bypoll and offer them our best wishes and cooperation. We bow before the mandate of the people in a true democratic spirit."

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring also congratulated Mann.

"Humbly accept people's verdict in Sangrur bypoll. My congratulations to Simranjit Singh Mann Ji for his victory. I am sure he would keep raising Punjab's voice in his new role. The result reflects displeasure of public with Aam Aadmi Party insensitive and inept governance," tweeted Warring.

On the other hand, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu took a pot shot at Sukhbir Badal-led SAD for its candidate's defeat.

"Kamaldeep Rajoana, representative of violent terrorists and sinking Akali dal is set to forfeit her security deposit and face huge loss getting roughly only 5 per cent votes. Sukhbir Badal, Pannu 2020 and Rajoana should come and try now to save their candidates' deposit," Bittu said in a Twitter post.

BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the Sangrur Bypoll results indicated that Punjab has rejected the Delhi model of the AAP government.

"Punjab has clearly rejected Delhi Model. AAP Punjab losing Sangrur Bypoll is a warning signal to Bhagwant Mann to take command in his hand," Sirsa said in a Twitter post.

Besides Sangrur, the counting of votes for bypolls in two other Lok Sabha constituencies - Rampur and Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh held on Sunday where the BJP emerged as the winner.

Further, the counting of votes was also held for the bypolls of seven assembly seats spread across Tripura, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. The voting for bypolls was held on June 23.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)