Chandigarh, Jan 31 (IANS): Congress national spokesman Randeep Surjewala on Thursday had a poor outing in the Jind Assembly by-election, finishing third in a multi-cornered contest.
Surjewala, who was fielded as a "strong candidate" despite being a sitting legislator, did not even come second.
He secured only 22,740 votes against the 50,566 bagged by the winning BJP candidate Krishan Lal Middha.
Young candidate Digvijay Singh Chautala of the newly formed Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) finshed second with 37,631 votes.
The Congress leader accepted defeat.
"The people have given their mandate. We accept that. We will work for the development of Jind constituency," Surjewala said.
Surjewala is the Congress legislator from the Kaithal assembly seat.
The Congress leader said that there were complaints regarding mismatch of serial numbers of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and counting was stopped for some time.