The North News
Ludhiana, June 23
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has retained the Ludhiana West Assembly seat in Punjab with a comfortable margin, as party candidate and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora defeated Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 10,637 votes in a closely watched by-election. After 14 rounds of counting, Arora secured 35,179 votes, while Ashu received 24,542. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Jiwan Gupta came third with 20,323 votes, followed by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, who polled 8,203.
The by-election was held on 19 June following the death of sitting AAP legislator Gurpreet Singh Gogi. AAP leaders, including Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and Cabinet Minister Aman Arora, credited the victory to the party’s pro-people governance in Punjab, leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, and the party’s strong anti-drug campaign.
Despite the significance of the seat, Ludhiana West recorded the lowest turnout among the five assembly constituencies that went to bypolls last week, with just 51.33% of eligible voters casting their vote.
The result is being viewed as a barometer for the upcoming 2027 state elections, offering AAP a boost as it seeks to consolidate its urban voter base in Punjab.
