Amritpal Singh, the jailed Sikh separatist and chief of pro-Khalistan group Waris Punjab De, won from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, data from the Election Commission showed.
Singh, who is fighting the election as an independent candidate, is currently in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail.
Singh won with a margin of 1,97,120 votess and secured 4,04,430 votes of the 10,47,165 total votes. Congress leader Kulbir Singh Zira was trailing at 2,07,310 votes.
On April 23, 2023, the Punjab Police arrested the self-styled Sikh preacher from Moga after he had been on the run for over a month. The 29-year-old was flown to Assam on a special flight and sent to the Dibrugarh Central Jail.
The Punjab Police began cracking down on members of Waris Punjab De, or heirs of Punjab, days after Singh and his supporters stormed a police station in Amritsar on February 23, 2023. This came after one of Singh’s aides was arrested for alleged assault and attempted kidnapping.
Singh had garnered a significant following with his speeches centred around Punjab’s youth and the Sikh religion. He had also publicly supported the demand for Khalistan, an independent state for Sikhs.
Watch: Elections Online – the election results coverage by five independent newsrooms
Khadoor Sahib is one of 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The constituency comprises nine Assembly segments. In 2019, Congress candidate Jasbir Singh Gill won the Khadoor Sahib constituency with a margin of 1.4 lakh votes.
Polling for the seat this time took place in the seventh and final phase of the election on June 1.
The counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha election is underway. As per the trends at 3.30 pm, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was leading in about 242 seats, data from the Election Commission showed. The Opposition INDIA bloc was ahead in about 236 seats.
Polling across 542 parliamentary constituencies was held across seven phases between April 19 and June 1. The Lok Sabha has 543 seats and a party or coalition needs 272 seats to form the government.
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