Helped by the Opposition boycott of the bypoll, the ruling SAD on Tuesday won the Khadoor Sahib Assembly seat, with party candidate Ravinder Singh Brahmpura defeating his nearest rival Independent candidate Bhupinder Singh by a margin of 65,664 votes.
Main opposition parties Congress and Aam Aadmi Party had stayed out of the contest. The seat was won by the Congress in the last election.
Brahmpura defeated Bhupinder Singh, who had broken away from the Congress and entered the fray as an Independent.
Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer VK Singh said that at the end of 15 rounds of counting, Brahmpura had polled 83,080 votes as against 17,416 in favour of Bhupinder. “Ravinder Brahmpura has won by 65,664 votes,” he said. Another Independent candidate Sumel Singh Sidhu could only poll 2,243 votes. He had parted ways with AAP to contest the poll.
The bypoll was held as the seat fell vacant after Congress MlA
Ramanjit Singh Sikki resigned in protest against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib last year.Congress had ‘boycotted’ the polls, saying the issue on which Sikki had resigned was still unresolved.