Chandigarh, May 13 (PTI) Sushil Rinku, who defeated Congress’ Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, has become the sole MP of the Aam Aadmi Party in the lower house of Parliament.
Rinku (47), who left the Congress and joined the ruling AAP in Punjab, defeated Chaudhary by a margin of 58,691 votes in the high-stakes bypoll.
He polled 3,02,279 votes while Chaudhary secured 2,43,588 votes, as per the Election Commission data.
Rinku will be the sole MP of the AAP in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier, Chief Minster Bhagwant Mann had been the Lok Sabha MP in 2014 and 2019, but after the AAP stormed to power in Punjab in the 2022 assembly polls, he vacated the Sangrur parliamentary seat. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) had won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat bypoll last year.
Rinku thanked voters for the victory in the bypoll.
“I thank voters of Jalandhar for giving a huge mandate to AAP,” he said.
“Not for 11 months, we will go ahead with a vision for the next five years,” Rinku said.
He said his priority will be to get the pending projects, including smart city, Jalandhar airport and Adampur flyover, implemented.
“My efforts will be to take up the issues of Punjab with the Centre and get them resolved,” he said.
Rinku had joined the AAP after quitting the Congress in the run up to the bypoll.
Rinku is a Dalit and has a good support base in his community.
He began his political career as a municipal corporation councillor. He became the MLA on the Congress ticket in 2017. However, he tasted defeat in the 2022 assembly polls by the hands of AAP candidate Sheetal Angural.
During campaigning for the Jalandhar bypoll, Rinku had spoken about free electricity, mohalla clinics and other issues to woo voters. PTI CHS VSD AQS AQS
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