Jalandhar West bye-elections 2024 is underway and voters are enthusiastically casting their votes for the candidate of their choice. The voter turnout percentage reached 51.30% by the evening (5 pm). With just an hour left to go, the polling is now reaching the final stage. Earlier, 42.60% of the voters had exercised their franchise by 3 PM, 34.04% by 1 PM, 23.04% by 11 AM and 10.30% by 9 AM. Voting started at 7 AM and will continue until 6 PM.
Talking about the candidates, they are the former senior deputy mayor Surinder Kaur for Congress, former BJP minister Chunni Lal Bhagat's son Mohinder Bhagat from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and former MLA Sheetal Angural from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With 39,213 (33.73%) votes, Sheetal Angural won the election in 2022 while representing AAP. Mohinder Bhagat, who was running for the BJP at the time, finished third with 36,649 (28.81%) votes, behind Sushil Rinku of the Congress. The SAD fielded Surjit Kaur as their candidate, who sparked controversy as she made two swift party shifts, joining AAP and then returning to SAD.
The seat was won by BJP in 2012, Congress in 2017 and AAP in 2022. AAP had won the seat by contesting with Sheetal Angural as their candidate, who switched party just before the Lok Sabha elections in March and resigned as the MLA. Mohinder Bhagat, who is now the AAP candidate was the BJP candidate in 2022.
A total of 1,71,963 voters are registered in the constituency and 181 polling booths have been set up.