AAP candidate leading in Punjab's Jalandhar (West) seat

Chandigarh, July 13 (IANS) AAP candidate from Punjab's Jalandhar (West) reserved seat, Mohinder Bhagat, has been leading over Congress' Surinder Kaur with 27,168 votes, a handsome margin, as per early trends.

BJP's Sheetal Angural, whose defection from AAP necessitated the bypoll, is currently third.

Congress candidate Surinder Kaur, the former senior Deputy Mayor and five-time councillor of Jalandhar got 9,204 votes. In comparison, Angural got 6,557 votes, as per the Election Commission of India's sixth round of counting on Saturday.

Bhagat, who left BJP and joined the AAP in April 2023, is the son of a three-time MLA from this Assembly constituency of BJP and served as Cabinet Minister from 2007-2017.

The vote count for Punjab's lone Assembly constituency began with 15 candidates.

Polling was held on Wednesday and saw 54.98 per cent turnout.

The Jalandhar West (reserved) Assembly constituency, a hub of Dalits in the Doaba region, witnessed a multi-cornered contest among major political parties like the AAP, Congress, and BJP.