CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) retained the Ludhiana (West) assembly seat.
In the by-polls, results for which were declared on Monday, party candidate Sanjeev Arora won by a margin of 10,637 votes. He polled 35, 179 votes as against the 24, 542 votes polled by his nearest Congress rival Bharat Bhushan Ashu. The BJP candidate Jivan Gupta came third with 20,323 votes. The Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Parupkar Singh Ghuman came a poor fourth.
With this victory, Arora is all set to become a cabinet minister. The cabinet expansion is expected to happen soon. The Rajya Sabha seat vacated by him might go to some top AAP leader.
Kejriwal however said he would not go to the Rajya Sabha. "Many times I have been sent to the Rajya Sabha. I want to tell you I am not going to the Rajya Sabha. The political affairs committee of the party will decide whom to nominate,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, speculations are rife now that at least one sitting cabinet minister might be asked to step down and there will be a reshuffle in the state cabinet.
The byelection victory has come as a morale booster for the AAP which lost the Delhi Assembly elections in February earlier this year.
The AAP threw its entire weight behind the campaign with the party’s national leadership led by AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia and former Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain campaigning for the party candidate. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur Mann also campaigned extensively for Sanjeev Arora.
Being a first time contestant, Arora didn't carry any political baggage like Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
Arora had consistently raised local issues in Parliament, including pending National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects and the need for more seats in private medical colleges. He also funded various local development projects through his MPLADS funds, focused on schools, colleges, and civic infrastructure. His candidature was declared in February which gave him a good head start.
The win consolidates AAP’s hold on the Ludhiana West seat, which became vacant following the death of party MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January this year. A voter turnout of 51.33 per cent was recorded in the bypoll, a sharp drop from the 64 per cent voting registered in the 2022 assembly elections.
Vote share of AAP improves
The vote share of AAP has improved this time around. Arora polled 35, 179 votes which translates to 39.02 per cent of the vote share, while in 2022 assembly polls, AAP's vote share was 34.46 percent. The vote share of the Congress and the BJP has dropped. The Congress party's vote share was 27.22 percent as against the 28.06 per cent vote share of last elections. BJP candidate Gupta's vote share is 22.54 percent as against 23.95 percent of last elections.