CHANDIGARH: The Ludhiana (West) by-election on Thursday will be a litmus test for the ruling Aam Aadmi Party's national leadership and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as they have aggressively campaigned to retain the seat, while the Congress looks to regain its foothold over the urban constituency which it held six times in the past.
While the main contest is likely to be between the AAP and Congress, the bypoll outcome will also shed light on how the BJP performs among urban voters in the state. It is also going to be a test for Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal as his party looks to resurrect itself after a series of crushing electoral losses.
In the parliamentary elections last year, Ravneet Singh Bittu of the BJP had led from the Ludhiana West assembly segment, which is part of the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat. However, he lost to Congress canddiate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.
The BJP's senior leadership including Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and Tarun Chugh, canvassed for Jivan Gupta, besides state unit leaders.
Gupta is a member of the core committee of the Punjab BJP. He was earlier the party's state general secretary.
The stakes are also high for the Congress. Punjab Congress leaders, including party's general secretary in-charge Punjab and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Charanjit Singh Channi, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Amritsar Member of Parliament Gurjit Singh Aujla, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, MLAs Rana Gurjit Singh, and Pargat Singh campaigned for Bharat Bhusan Ashu.
Punjab Congress working president Ashu served as MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. The 51-year-old was defeated by Gurpreet Bassi alias Gogi by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls. Ashu was food and civil supplies minister in the previous Congress government.
The AAP leadership urged the Ludhiana (West) electorate to vote for party candidate Sanjeev Arora who is presently a Rajya Sabha MP, with party supremo Arvind Kejriwal announcing that the AAP candidate will be made the state cabinet minister if he is elected.
The 61-year-old Arora is a Ludhiana-based industrialist and is also known for his social work. He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. Arora has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2022.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann described the election as a battle between "humility" and "arrogance", stating that Arora represents "simplicity" while the Congress nominee is known for "arrogance."
Kejriwal lauded Arora for his philanthropic efforts and assured the public that with Arora's election, Ludhiana West would witness unparalleled development.
The outcome of this byelection will throw light on the popularity of the AAP regime's policies and programmes among urban voters in the constituency. In November last year, the AAP had won three out of four assembly bypolls.
The SAD has named Parupkar Singh Ghuman as its candidate for the bypoll. Ghuman is a lawyer and former president of the Ludhiana bar.
There are a total of 14 candidates in the fray. Polling will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on June 19 and the counting will be held on June 23. A total of 1,75,469 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise, 85,371 of them women and 10 of third gender.
There will be a total of 194 polling stations for the bypoll and 100 percent live webcasting of polling stations.
The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.