Punjab: Congress fields Surinder Kaur for Jalandhar West assembly by-polls

Jun 19, 2024

New Delhi [India], June 19 : The Congress on Wednesday announced Surinder Kaur as the party's candidate for the by-polls on the Jalandhar West - SC assembly seat.
"The Congress President, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, has approved the candidature of Smt. Surinder Kaur as Congress candidate for the ensuing bye-election to the Legislative Assembly of Punjab from 34- Jalandhar West - SC Constituency," the press release from the All India Congress Committee read.
Earlier on Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced Mohinder Bhagat as the party's candidate for the by-polls on the Jalandhar West assembly seat.
The by-polls for the constituency is scheduled to be held on July 10 and the result will be declared on July 13.
The seat fell vacant after Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sheetal Angural's resignation. Angural resigned on March 28. He has been announced as the BJP's candidate from the same seat.
Angural had stepped down as AAP MLA after joining BJP along with former AAP MP Sushil Kumar Rinku in March. With Angural's resignation, the number of AAP's elected MLAs was reduced to 91 from the 92, it won in the 117-member assembly in February 2022-held assembly elections.
Congress candidate and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi defeated BJP's Sushil Kumar Rinku to win the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency by a record margin of 1.75 lakh votes in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.
AAP only won 3 out of the 13 seats in Punjab in the Lok Sabha polls, while Congress won seven seats. Shiromani Akali Dal won a lone seat and two seats were won by independent candidates.