Punjab bypoll: SAD (Amritsar)'s Simranjit Mann deals heavy blow to AAP
Chandigarh, Jun 26: SAD (Amritsar) Simranjit Singh Mann on Sunday won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat, defeating his nearest rival, AAP's Gurmail Singh, by a margin of 5,822 votes and dealing a big blow to the ruling party in Punjab.
The AAP's failure to retain the seat, considered as its pocket borough as Bhagwant Mann had won it twice, comes just three months after it registered a resounding victory in the state assembly polls.
This also comes at a time when the AAP is aggressively campaigning for the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh.
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and candidate Simranjit Mann, 77, won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat after nearly 23 years.
He polled 2,53,154 votes, while Gurmail Singh secured 2,47,332 votes, as per official figures.
Congress candidate Dalvir Singh Goldy, BJP's Kewal Dhillon and the SAD's Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana were at the third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.
Goldy polled 79,668 votes, Dhillon 66,298 and Kaur 44,428, as per the poll result.
Conceding defeat, AAP spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said, "We respect the mandate of the people of Sangrur seat. We also congratulate Simranjit Singh Mann."
The SAD (Amritsar) supporters celebrated on the roads of Sangrur, distributing 'ladoos' among the people.
Many were seen on cars and two-wheelers, raising slogans for their party leader.
The bypoll to the seat was necessitated due to the resignation of AAP's Bhagwant Mann from the Lok Sabha after he was elected as an MLA in the state assembly elections earlier this year.
Counting of votes began at 8 am on Sunday amid tight security arrangements.
The fate of 16 candidates who were in the fray was sealed during the polling on June 23.
The Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll had witnessed a low turnout of 45.30 per cent as against 72.44 per cent polling in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 76.71 in 2014.
There were 15.69 lakh eligible voters for the seat. The total number of valid votes polled is 7,08,448, and as many as 2,471 voters opted for NOTA (None of the above).
Simranjit Mann dedicated his victory to the people of Sangrur, to late actor-activist Deep Sidhu and slain Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala, "who gave their blood for the Sikh community".
"This will have repercussions on India's politics. Many used to laugh and say 'what will Simranjit Singh Mann do'. They have been proved wrong today," Simranjit Mann said. "Our party workers worked very hard."
"I am grateful to the voters of Sangrur for electing me as your representative in Parliament. I will work hard to ameliorate the sufferings of our farmers, farm-labour, traders and everyone in my constituency," he added.
Mann said he will raise their issues in Parliament to ensure the constituency's overall development.
In earlier rounds, Simranjit Mann and Gurmail were locked in a neck-and-neck fight but Mann maintained a slender lead.
The Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Punjab in March, registering a landslide win riding on 'badlav' (change).
In the 2014 and the 2019 polls, the Sangrur LS seat was held by AAP's Bhagwant Mann, who resigned as MP after being elected as MLA from Dhuri. He later become the state's chief minister.
The bypoll to the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat was the first major electoral battle for the AAP after its resounding victory in the state assembly polls.
Simranjit Mann had earlier been an MP from Tarn Taran in 1989 and from Sangrur in 1999.
During campaigning for the Sangrur bypoll, Mann's main poll plank was to secure the release of Sikh prisoners lodged in various prisons even after the expiry of their respective jail terms.
For the ruling AAP, the bypoll was seen as a battle of prestige for retaining its bastion, while the opposition Congress, BJP and the SAD were looking to register a victory after being decimated in the assembly polls.
The AAP had fielded Singh, 38, who is the party's Sangrur district in-charge while the Congress had placed its bet on former Dhuri MLA Goldy.
The BJP fielded former Barnala MLA Kewal Dhillon who joined the party early this month. The SAD had fielded Kamaldeep Kaur, the sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, a convict in former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's assassination case.
The Sangrur parliamentary constituency was considered an AAP bastion as the party won all its nine assembly segments in the assembly elections this year.
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'Go back to your own country': Indian-origin taxi driver attacked in Dublin
London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.
Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.
Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".
"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.
"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.
A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.
"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.
The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.
“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.
“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.
A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.
Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.
The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.
His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.
“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.
Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.
“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.
Another violent anti-Indian attack in Ireland
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) August 5, 2025
Taxi driver Lakhvir Singh was attacked with glass bottles while doing his job pic.twitter.com/mtkwhLWISx
