In a big setback, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has lost Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s Lok Sabha seat to Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) in the bypolls.
AAP's candidate Gurmail Singh lost Sangrur, which was vacated by Mann after winning Punjab state elections earlier this year, by a margin of 7,000 votes to Shiromani Akali Dal's (A) Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday.
77-year-old Simranjit Singh Mann is the president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar)-unrelated to the Shiromani Akali Dal led by the Badal clan. Meanwhile, AAP's candidate Gurmail Singh is the party's district-in-charge of Sangrur.
Other candidates fielded for the Sangrur seat include Congress' former Dhuri MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy, BJP's Kewal Dhillon and Akali Dal's Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana.
For Aam Aadmi Party winning this seat was a matter of prestige and retaining its bastion while for other parties it meant coming back from the heavy loss in this year's state elections.
Bhagwant Mann had held Sangrur in both the 2014 and 2019 general elections till he vacated it earlier this year in March. Sangrur was one of the three Lok Sabha seats and seven Assembly constituencies where bypolls were necessitated this year.
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