Congress leads in Lok Sabha bypoll in Amritsar

Chandigarh, March 11 (IANS) The Congress is leading in the by-election to the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in the counting of votes on Saturday, poll official said.

Congress candidate Gurjeet Singh Aujla, a youth leader, was ahead of his BJP rival Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina by over 43,000 votes, the poll official added here.

The by-election was necessitated after the parliamentary seat was vacated in November 2016 by Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh following the Supreme Court verdict on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal issue.

Amarinder Singh had won the seat in the 2014 general elections in a high-profile contest against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Arun Jaitley by over one lakh votes.

The Congress was surging ahead in the assembly elections in Punjab, leading in 65 out of 117 assembly seats.