AAP got lead in 177 of 181 booths in Jalandhar bypoll

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 15

It was just in four polling booths falling in Rasila Nagar, Basti Danishmandan, Abadpura and Jallowal Abadi where the Aam Aadmi Party trailed behind either of its two main rivals — the BJP and the Congress — in the recently concluded Jalandhar West Assembly bypoll. AAP remained triumphant in the remaining 177 out of 181 booths. AAP candidate Mohinder Bhagat had won by a margin of 37,325 votes on Saturday.

In almost all other localities, including Bhargo Camp (a hub of the Bhagat community to which AAP candidate belongs), Model House, Shaheed Babu Labh S Nagar, New Deol Nagar, Bootan Mandi, Avtar Nagar, Basti Mithu, Basti Sheikh, Basti Nau and areas along Kala Sanghian road, AAP had a clear edge.

At Rasila Nagar, which is home to BJP candidate Sheetal Angural, the BJP polled 389 votes, AAP 269 and Congress remained the distant third with 88 votes. At Basti Danishmandan, which too is considered a BJP turf, AAP gave a neck-and-neck competition to the BJP. In booth no. 96, Angural outscored both AAP and Congress, securing 252 votes against AAP’s 247. The Congress trailed by 50 votes.

Angural polled only three votes from booth no. 32 in Jallowal Abadi, where Congress candidate Surinder Kaur resides. At a score of 237, she could get just two votes more than the AAP candidate.

One booth where AAP trailed badly behind the Congress and the BJP was booth no. 6 of Abadpura. AAP candidate scored almost 50 per cent less votes than the votes polled to Surinder Kaur of the Congress (247 votes) and Angural (243 votes). Bhagat scored only 125 votes.

Bootan Mandi, where AAP leader Pawan Tinu got an animal carcass dumping site removed, went in its favour with 218 votes. The BJP and Congress polled only 165 and 138 votes, respectively, even as it is pre-dominantly inhabited by the Ravidasia community to which both belong.

The Avtar Nagar locality responded harshly towards Angural as the number of votes polled to the BJP in three booths no. 60-62 here was just 14, 14 and 17. The Congress gave a tough competition to AAP in localities along Kala Sanghian Road.