Congress candidate and Punjab Pradesh Congress chief Sunil Jakhar wrested the prestigious Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat from the BJP. He trounced the Congress candidate by over 1,69,640 votes. The bypoll became necessary due to the death of sitting BJP MP Vinod Khanna.

BJP fielded Swaran Salaria and AAP candidate was Major General (retd) Suresh Khajuria.
The polling was held on October 11 and 56 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. This was much less than the 70 per cent votes polled in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The bypoll was seen as a referendum on the performance of the Amarinder Singh Government. Both the Congress, the BJP and the Aam Admi Party made a strong bid for the seat and turned it into a prestigious battle. Gurdaspur has been a BJP stronghold and Vinod Khanna returned from the seat four times. It has nine Assembly segments -- Bhoa, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Dinanagar, Qadian, Fathegarh Churian, Dera Baba Nanak, Sujanpur and Batala. But, his death and the changed political environment meant that the BJP was facing an uphill task.

Conceding defeat AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said: We humbly accept the verdict of Gurdaspur, but remember the track record of Punjab byelections where Jis Ki Lathi Uss Ki Bhains (might is right) works.