AAP wins Tarn Taran bypoll, but SAD finds silver lining

Sandhu secured 42,649 as against the 30,558 garnered by Kaur. Independent Mandeep Singh Khalsa, who was supported by Amritpal Singh Bath, finished third.

The AAP candidate likely benefited from his personal support base, while Kaur, Amritpal’s mother-in-law polled impressively in villages seemingly due to the gangster’s influence.

“I wholeheartedly thank and congratulate the wise and brave voters of Tarn Taran, who stood up to the government’s authoritarianism and high-handedness of the Punjab Police with remarkable courage, and gave a befitting response to the oppression, violence and temptation of money… The Khalsa Path and Punjab will always be indebted to the voters… The election result stands as a remarkable victory for the party,” said SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The result came as a rude shock to the Congress, whose candidate Karanbir Singh Burj finished fourth with just over 15,000 votes while the BJP nominee Harjit Singh Sandhu, despite a high-octane campaign by party bigwigs, finished fifth. Both the Congress and BJP candidates forfeited their deposits.

Burj’s poor showing ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls is being seen as a significant setback for the Congress. While Burj failed to build an effective campaign, state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring’s controversial remarks in the run up to the polls are being viewed as a key reason for his loss.

Admitting that the BJP’s poor show in “panthic seat” was due to the lack of an organisational structure, a senior BJP leader said the party was contesting the bypoll only to “test the waters”.

BJP State general secretary Anil Sarin had a more realistic picture to paint. “No doubt the vote share has increased manifold compared to 2022, but yes, the result is below expectations and I don’t deny that the response we got from the constituency couldn’t be converted into votes. We will self-introspect after the complete poll result declaration. However, I must say that we received wide acceptance in villages and towns in this pure panthic seat, while in 2022 it was difficult to even campaign. We got love and affection from voters and surely will try to convert it into votes in 2027,” he said.