Campaigning for the Ludhiana West Assembly by-election in Punjab concluded on Tuesday evening, with major political parties — AAP, Congress, BJP, and Shiromani Akali Dal — making a final push to garner support for their respective candidates.
Hours before the campaigning ended at 6 pm, leaders from all parties intensified their efforts, holding roadshows and public meetings across the urban constituency in Punjab’s industrial hub. The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
Polling will take place on June 19 from 7 am to 6 pm, while counting of votes is scheduled for June 23. A total of 14 candidates are contesting the by-election, with 1.74 lakh voters eligible to cast their votes — including 84,825 women and 10 individuals from the third gender.
According to officials, 194 polling stations have been set up for the bypoll, and 100 per cent live webcasting will be carried out to ensure transparency.
The ruling AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora for the bypoll. Arora (61) is a Ludhiana-based industrialist and is also known for his social welfare work. Arora has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2022.
The opposition party Congress has placed its bet on former minister and Punjab Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu (51). Ashu had remained MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gogi by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls. Ashu had remained food and civil supplies minister in the previous Congress regime.
The BJP has field party's senior leader Jiwan Gupta. He is a member of the core committee of Punjab BJP. He had earlier remained the party's state general secretary.
The SAD named Parupkar Singh Ghuman as its candidate for the bypoll. Ghuman is a lawyer and the former president of the Ludhiana Bar Association.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, along with AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal aggressively campaigned in favour of party nominee Arora.
They urged voters to vote for Arora with Kejriwal announcing that the AAP candidate will be made the cabinet minister if he is elected in the bypoll. The Ludhiana West bypoll is seen as a litmus test for Mann and the ruling party's national leadership which has been aggressively campaigning to retain this seat. In November last year, the AAP had won three out of four assembly bypolls.
Punjab Congress leaders including party's general secretary in-charge Punjab and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Chief Minister and MP Charanjit Singh Channi, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Amritsar MP Gurjit Singh Aujla, MLAs Rana Gurjit Singh, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Pargat Singh and Aruna Chaudhary campaigned for Ashu.
Prestige is at stake for the BJP in the bypoll as well. Leaders including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, BJP leader Tarun Chugh, former union minister Anurag Thakur and Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar canvassed for Gupta.
The Ludhiana West bypoll is also going to be a test of the leadership of Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, which is looking to resurrect itself after a series of crushing electoral losses.
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