A major shake-up has taken place in Punjab politics due the performance of two Independent candidates. Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh, jailed in Assam's Dibrugarh, seems all set to win from the Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab while Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of Indira Gandhi's assassin Beant Singh, is leading from the Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency.
At the time of writing this story, Amritpal Singh had a lead of 1.8 lakh votes over his nearest rival while Sarabjeet Singh was leading by about 70,000.
Khadoor Sahib
Khadoor Sahib is known as a Panthic seat. It has been dominated by one faction or the other of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Hardline Akali leader Simranjit Singh Mann had won Tarn Taran, the precursor to Khadoor Sahib, in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. It was only in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that the Congress managed to wrest the seat, mainly due to a split in votes between the Shiromani Akali Dal and Punjabi Ekta Party Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra.
In this election, Amritpal was up against Kulbir Zira of the Congress, minister Laljit Bhullar from AAP, Virsa Singh Valtoha from SAD (Badal) and Manjit Singh Mann from BJP.