AAP's Harmeet Sandhu wins Tarn Taran bypoll, celebrations erupt at party offices

Tarn Taran: The ruling AAP retained the Tarn Taran assembly seat in Punjab on Friday, with its candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu defeating his nearest rival and SAD nominee Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa by a margin of 12,091 votes.

Harmeet Singh Sandhu secured 42,649 votes against Randhawa's 30,558 after the completion of all 16 rounds of counting, the Election Commission website showed.

Celebrations broke out at AAP offices in Tarn Taran and Chandigarh, with party workers dancing to drumbeats and bursting firecrackers to celebrate the poll victory.

Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Randhawa was leading in the first three rounds of counting before Harmeet Singh took over and maintained a steady lead.

Independent candidate Mandeep Singh was in the third spot with 19,620 votes, Congress' Karanbir Singh Burj was fourth with 15,078 and BJP's Harjit Singh Sandhu was a distant fifth with 6,239 votes.

A total of 15 candidates were in the fray.

The counting of votes for the November 11 bypoll, which saw a voter turnout of 60.95 per cent, began at 8 am at the International College of Nursing, Piddi, amid tight security. There were a total of 1,92,838 eligible voters.

The Tarn Taran seat fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal in June.

The bypoll was being seen as a litmus test for Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the ruling AAP. With Friday's win, the party has won six of the seven bypolls held in the state since it came to power in March 2022.