All eyes on how BJP factor will play out in this urban constituency of Punjab

With just two days to go before the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll on June 19, all eyes are on how the BJP factor will play out in this urban constituency of Punjab, where voters largely come from elite, educated, and financially sound backgrounds.

- GNS News Agency

The primary contest is expected to be between Congress's Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a former minister and two-term MLA, and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Sanjeev Arora, an industrialist and member of the Rajya Sabha. However, attention is focused on how the votes cast for BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta will impact both the Congress and the AAP. Since its establishment in 1977, the Ludhiana West assembly constituency has never been won by the BJP, even in independent contests or in alliances with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Out of the ten elections held in this period, the Congress won six times, the BJP’s former ally SAD claimed two victories, and the erstwhile Janata Party won once. After the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab ended over the three farm laws in 2020, the BJP contested the 2022 Assembly elections independently from Ludhiana West, with its candidate, Bikram Singh Sidhu, coming third with 23.95 per cent of the votes, and the AAP’s Gurpreet Gogi winning. However, in this urban seat, dominated by the upmarket Hindu business community, industrialists and traders, along with scientists/professors from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), the BJP has made significant gains in the past year or so. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, former Congress Ludhiana MP Ra