Akali Dal wins Punjab by-poll
By IANSMonday, June 15, 2009
JALANDHAR - The Akali Dal candidate Monday won the by-election to Nurmahal assembly seat in Punjab’s Jalandhar district, defeating the Congress nominee by a margin of 15,033 votes.
Akali Dal’s Rajwinder Kaur got 50,963 votes while her Congress rival, Gurbinder Singh Atwal managed to get only 35,930 votes, a spokesperson of the state poll panel told IANS.
Polling was held Friday, with the voter turnout crossing 70 percent. Counting of votes was held Monday.
Rajwinder Kaur is the widow of sitting legislator Gurdeep Singh Bhullar of the Akali Dal, who had died December 2008. The seat was lying vacant since then. By-elections were scheduled May 28 but postponed to June 12 following widespread violence in the state, particularly in Jalandhar district, in the aftermath of a bloody clash in a gurdwara in Austrian capital Vienna.
