Jailed Khalistani separatist and Waris Punjab De Chief Amritpal Singh is leading by 50,405 votes from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib seat in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, according to the latest trends shown by Election Commission of India.
Amritpal 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.
The pro-Khalistani leader was arrested by Punjab police in April last year, weeks after evading police for over a month and the stringent National Security Act was invoked against him.
The Khadoor Sahib seat was won by the Congress’ Jasbir Singh Gill in 2019.
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.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is leading in the two Lok Sabha seats of Wayanad in Kerala and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh as per the initial trends.
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a third straight term in power, while the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party.
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 Bharatiya Janata Party 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. The Lok Sabha elections for 543 seats of the lower house were held across seven phases.