But he had to resign as he could not fulfil the mandatory requirement of getting elected to the assembly within six months of becoming a minister.

Badal junior, who has been a three-time MP and a minister of state in the central government earlier, had contested the assembly poll for the first time.

The ruling Akali Dal won the by-elections for all three seats for which results were declared Thursday. Sukhbir Badal won by a margin of record 80,000-odd votes over his Congress opponent.

The Akalis have been running an alliance government in Punjab with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since March 2007.

Jasjit Singh Bunny also made his maiden entry to the assembly. He is the son of former Punjab cooperation minister Kanwaljit Singh who died in a road accident near here in March.