In a setback to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll, its leader Kamaljit Singh Karwal Sunday joined the Congress along with two former councillors.
Karwal, who fought the 2022 assembly polls from Atam Nagar seat in Ludhiana district on a Congress ticket, joined the opposition party along with former councillors Gurpreet Singh Gopi Gill and Ranjit Singh Ubbi.They were inducted into the party at a function presided over by former Punjab Chief Minister and MP Charanjit Singh Channi and attended, among others, by former ministers Rana Gurjeet Singh and Bharat Bhushan Ashu.Ashu is the Congress candidate from Ludhiana West seat.
Welcoming Karwal, Gill and Ubbi into the party, Channi said the writing was on the wall as the exodus of leaders and workers from the AAP had started and its exit was imminent.He pointed out that normally during the by-elections it is the people from the opposition parties who join the ruling party."But here the reverse is happening as people have realised that the AAP was on the way out and the Congress was on comeback trail," he said.
Rana Gurjeet, who is the chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee for the Ludhiana West by-election, said many more will join the party in coming days.Speaking on the occasion, Karwal said it was a homecoming for him.He said there is no better party than the Congress, which can provide an honest and efficient government to the people of Punjab.Ashu said not just people of Ludhiana, but entire Punjab are looking towards Ludhiana West bypoll as the winds of change will start blowing from here.
The Ludhiana West Assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. The bypoll to Ludhiana West seat will take place on June 19 and the counting will be held on June 23.
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