AAP Wins Jalandhar By-Poll, MP Amritpal’s Brother Caught with Drugs

On 13 Jul, AAP’s Mohinder Bhagat won the Jalandhar West assembly by-poll with a margin of over 37,325 votes which adds to 58% of the total 54.98% voter turnout. After winning just three seats in the general elections, this result comes as a booster for AAP. BJP’s Sheetal Angural came in second; he had switched parties from AAP to BJP before the general elections. In the thirteen assembly seats in seven states that went to polls, the opposition won ten. The BJP secured two seats, one seat in Bihar went to an independent. The Trinamool Congress swept Bengal, and INC won two seats in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won one seat in Tamil Nadu. The results do not bode well for BJP, which is going into three state elections in October this year. Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh made headlines again on July 12 when Jalandhar police arrested his brother Harpreet Singh and Lovepreet Singh for drug possession. They were caught with 4 grams of methamphetamine (ICE) on the Jalandhar-Panipat highway. Jalandhar Rural Superintendent of Police Ankur Gupta said, ‘The accused bought the contraband from Ludhiana-based Sandeep Arora.’ Arora has been arrested and the police have found a Unified Payments Interface trail for the drugs. The accused have tested positive for drugs and have been booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Harpreet's father Tarsem Singh alleged that ‘certain forces have conspired to hinder Amritpal's progress’ but did not name anyone. MP Amritpal Singh, in jail under the National Security Act, has been a vocal anti-drug advocate. His associates – Kulwant Singh Raoke, Bhagwant Singh and Daljeet Singh Kalsi – have declared their intention to stand for by-polls in Panjab in the next few months (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 28, Story 9).