Victorious AAP rebel yet to open cards

Of the 85 wards, where AAP won most seats followed by the Congress and BJP, Tarsem Lakhotra's win who contested independent is the most interesting one. After feeling betrayed by the party, he decided to fight independently and won.

Ex-Congress councillor Tarsem Lakhotra had quit the party to join the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Jalandhar West bypoll for better prospects but was upset as his name appeared on the AAP first list from Ward no. 46 but his name was deleted in the subsequent list that came five hours later. The ticket was given to Rajneesh Bhagat instead.

Lakhotra turned rebel and chose to file his papers as Independent. "I have left AAP. I have not joined any party so far. I will decide my future course of action after December 21 result", he had then said.

He got 1,940 votes while Rajneesh Bhagat 962 votes.

Lakhotra expressed his happiness. "I am thankful to the people of my ward who went against the government and voted for me. That means they were impressed by the work that I have been doing for them," he said.

Lakhotra further added that since yesterday he had been visiting people's house and thanking them. "Yesterday, the entire evening, I was with my people. Today as well, I started at 10 in the morning and visited door to door to express my gratitude," an elated and thankful Lakhotra said.

Now, Tarsem Lakhotra has his options open. He said ,"Results just got declared yesterday. I will decide the next step. Right now, I am thanking my ward residents for keeping their faith in me." Whether he will join AAP again or another party, time will tell.