2019 Lok Sabha Election Results for Gurdaspur, Punjab: Debutant politician Sunny Deol wins Gurdaspur battle for BJP

Punjab’s Gurdaspur constituency saw a triangular battle between BJP's actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol, Sunil Jakhar of Congress and Peter Masih of AAP.

After counting of the votes on Thursday, Sunny Deol came up trumps, and won 551177 votes, beating Jakhar's tally (474168 votes) by 82459 votes. The actor-politician enjoyed a vote share of 50.61 percent. Meanwhile, Masih came third with 27744 votes.

Deol's family members congratulated him on his victory with heartfelt posts. The 'Gadar: Ek Prem Katha' actor's father, veteran actor Dharmendra and brother Bobby Deol took to social media to express their pride about his victory.

   

Sunny Deol's campaign:

Deol, BJP's latest big-name recruit, held a roadshow in the constituency on May 10 which was heavily-attended despite the Bollywood star being almost three-and-a-half-hours late.

He had started the roadshow atop a truck which carried a hand pump - an attempt to leverage iconic aspects of his film career - and even used his own famous dialogues. On May 11, his father and veteran actor Dharmendra also campaigned for him, but a week later, in a controversy, the Election Commission issued a notice to the BJP candidate for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct by holding a public meeting in Pathankot despite the deadline for campaigning having elapsed.

Congress candidate Jakhar, meanwhile, called Deol a 'misfit' for politics and an outsider. Jakhar has also been insisting that Deol debate with him on local issues.

2019 Lok Sabha Election Results LIVE Updates: Vote-counting For 2019 Indian General Elections, Trends For All 542 Constituencies And Non-stop Analysis From Republic TV And Arnab Goswami Here As India Elects A New Government

Gurdaspur through the ages:

Once a Congress bastion, Gurdaspur was won by BJP leader and Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna in 1998 and he retained the seat since then apart from a defeat in 2009, till his passing away in 2017.

Congress' Jakhar won the bypoll in 2017, beating with BJP's Swaran Salaria by 1.92 lakh votes.

Thirteen candidates have previously held the seat- Sukhwinder Singh, Partap Singh Bajwa, Gurpreet Singh Khanna, Gurmeet Singh Bakhatpura, Peter Masih, Amit Aggarwal, Sikander Singh, Mukesh, Rohit Maingi, Varinder Singh, Vinod Khanna, Santosh Kumari, Sucha Singh Chhotepur.

READ | 2019 Lok Sabha Election Results LIVE Updates: Vote-counting For 2019 Indian General Elections, Trends For All 542 Constituencies And Non-stop Analysis From Republic TV And Arnab Goswami Here As India Elects A New Government

Watch Arnab Live on Republic Media Network here.