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Ludhiana, Jun 17 (PTI) Campaigning for the bypoll to the Ludhiana West assembly segment in Punjab came to an end on Tuesday evening with the major parties - “AAP, Congress, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal - making last-ditch efforts to mobilise support for their respective candidates.

Hours before the campaigning ended at 6 pm, political leaders intensified canvassing to woo voters of the urban constituency of Punjab's industrial hub.

The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.

Polling will be held from 7 am till 6 pm on June 19 and the counting will be held on June 23.

There are a total of 14 candidates in the fray for the by-election. A total of 1.74 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise, 84,825 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, officials said.

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. He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. Arora has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2022.

The AAP took out a roadshow during the day in support of Arora. It was led by the party's Punjab in-charge and former deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia. Punjab AAP president Aman Arora and Sanjeev Arora were also part of it.

Sisodia urged voters to vote for the party candidate in the bypoll. "AAP is committed to transforming Ludhiana West into a model constituency. By voting for Sanjeev Arora, you will ensure progress and clean governance for your constituency." 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 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.

Mann described the election as a battle between "humility" and "arrogance" while highlighting that Arora represents "simplicity" while the Congress nominee is known for "arrogance." During canvassing, Mann said the bypoll is a clear choice between "pyaar (love) and 'hankaar' (arrogance)." Kejriwal lauded Arora for his philanthropic efforts, mentioning his role in raising Rs 16 crore for a child struggling with a rare disease in Delhi, and assured the public that with Arora's election, Ludhiana West would witness "unparalleled development." 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.

Prior to that the party had party faced a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls in which it could win only three of 13 parliamentary constituencies.

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.

While Ashu reminded voters of the previous record of development in the constituency, he said that his electoral fight was not against Arora, but Kejriwal, who was allegedly fighting for his own backdoor entry to Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

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.

Delhi Chief Minister Gupta during the poll campaign alleged that Bhagwant Mann is just a "mukhota" (mask) as the Punjab government is being run by the leaders of the AAP who have been "rejected" by people of the national capital.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's Ravneet Singh Bittu had led from the Ludhiana West assembly segment, which is part of the Ludhiana parliamentary seat. However, he lost to Congress nominee Amrinder Singh Raja Warring.

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.

Badal, who was elected again as party president in April after he resigned following being declared 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht last year, led his party's poll campaign for the party nominee Parupkar Singh Ghuman.

Badal was camping in Ludhiana for poll campaigning and meeting party workers, asking them to put in their best efforts to register victory in the bypoll.

Three rebel leaders - ”Sohan Singh Thandal, Anil Joshi and Sikander Singh Maluka - recently returned to the party fold with Badal saying the party was witnessing a steady comeback of leaders who left the party for various reasons in the past.

In the 2022 assembly polls, SAD candidate Maheshinder Singh Grewal had lost his security deposit from the Ludhiana West seat. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)