Jalandhar bypoll: AAP's Rinku ahead of Cong's Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary by over 16,000 votes

Chandigarh: AAP candidate Sushil Rinku is leading by over 16,000 votes over his nearest rival and Congress nominee Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, latest trends showed.

Rinku has, so far, polled 1,03,203 votes while Karamjit Kaur has got 86,624 votes, according to the trends on the Election Commission website.

Counting of votes for the seat, the bypoll for which was held on May 10, began at 8 am.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Karamjit Kaur's husband and Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January.

BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal was in the third spot while Shiromani Akali Dal's Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, who is being backed by the BSP, was at the fourth spot, the website showed.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Rinku is ahead of Karamjit Kaur by 16,579 votes, according to the trends. Atwal has, so far, got 56,150 votes while Sukhi has polled 50,184 vote.

The bypoll was held on May 10 and counting began at 8 am.

Nineteen candidates contested the bypoll, which recorded a voter turnout of 54.70 per cent. The turnout was well below the 63.04 per cent recorded in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.