Politics / People of Sangrur in Punjab gave a blow to Kejriwals party AAP clean from Lok Sabha

After the Aam Aadmi Party lost in the by-election to Sangrur parliamentary constituency of Punjab, it no longer has any member in the Lok Sabha. AAP's Sangrur district in-charge Gurmel Singh lost the seat to Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar candidate Simranjit Singh Mann by a margin of over 5,800 votes.

Simranjit Mann was last elected from this seat in 1999. The by-election was held after Bhagwant Mann resigned after being elected as an MLA in the March Assembly elections and becoming the Chief Minister. He had won from Sangrur in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This contest was the first test of confidence for AAP after the party's thumping victory in the assembly elections. A total of 16 candidates were in the fray for this seat. Congress candidate Dalveer Singh Goldy, BJP's Kewal Dhillon and Akali Dal's Kamaldeep Kaur secured third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

What did you say on defeat?

Talking to PTI, AAP's national spokesperson Sanjay Singh blamed the "feeling" of people in favor of the SAD (Amritsar) candidate for the party's defeat in the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat. He said the bypoll results should not be seen as the verdict of the people on the functioning of the government of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Singh said, "Sometimes people cast their votes driven by emotions. That's what happened there. Inspired by sentiments, people voted in favor of Simran Singh Mann. Maybe because of his age and also because he was facing defeat in elections for the last many years that people voted for him emotionally.

Singh said if the performance of the Bhagwant Mann government had been so bad, the traditional parties - Congress, Akali Dal and BJP - should have got votes. He said the Mann government has done "exemplary work" in the last three months.