Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh, who is currently lodged in Dibrugarh jail in Assan, is leading by 50,405 votes from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, according to the latest trends shown by Election Commission of India (ECI).
Singh is contesting an independent candidate. Congress leader Kulbir Singh Zira is trailing behind, while the Aam Admi Party candidate is trailing by 51,328 votes.
In April last year, Singh was arrested by Punjab police, weeks after evading police for over a month and the stringent National Security Act was invoked against him.
Previously in 2019 general elections, the Khadoor Sahib seat was won by the Congress' Jasbir Singh Gill. The Congress has nominated Kuldeep Singh Zira for the seat while the BJP has nominated Manjit Singh Manna. Laljit Singh Bhullar will represent the AAP and the Akali Dal will be represented by Virsa Singh Valtoha.
Voting for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab is scheduled to be held on June 1 in the seventh phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
Around 642 million people voted in Lok Sabha elections held over seven phases in a mammoth six-week period. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security.
The counting for State Legislative Assemblies of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies also began.
While, the BJP is eyeing for a third straight term, the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party.
Notably, most exit polls predicted a straight term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with quite a few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Even before the counting of the votes, the BJP won one seat of Surat Lok Sabha. Earlier on April 22, Mukesh Dalal won the election "unopposed". Congress nominee Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination was rejected. His candidacy was rejected because of alleged discrepancies in the signatures of the proposers.
