In 10 polls, Ludhiana West saw 56% turnout
Bharat Bhushan Ashu had lost to Aam Aadmi Party’s Gurpreet Gogi by 7,512 votes in 2022 when the segment saw 64.4% turnout; while Gogi secured 34.8% of votes, Ashu bagged 28.3%
The Ludhiana West assembly segment, which goes to polls on June 19, has recorded an average voter turnout of 56.64 % in the past 10 elections since 1977. In the last three assembly polls — 2012, 2017 and 2022 — the voter turnout crossed the 60% mark, stopping just shy of 70% in 2012 and 2017 when Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who is back in the fray, won the seat. He also boasts of registering the biggest victory margin – 35,922 in 2012, and 36,521 in 2017.
Ashu had lost to Aam Aadmi Party’s Gurpreet Gogi by 7,512 votes in 2022 when the segment saw 64.4% turnout. While Gogi secured 34.8% of votes, Ashu bagged 28.3%. The voter turnout went below 50% on two occasions — first in 1992 during the insurgency when the turnout was only 27.4% and the second time in 2002 when the segment recorded only 43.8% turnout.
This is the first time this segment is having a bypoll. Given the soaring daytime temperatures, analysts expect that the turnout may not follow the trends observed so far in the assembly elections. The main four contenders for the seat are Sanjeev Arora from the Aam Aadmi Party, Ashu from the Congress, Jiwan Gupta from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Parupkar Singh Ghumman from the Shiromani Akali Dal.
The Congress has held the seat six times, followed by two terms of the Akali Dal. The bypoll is being conducted to fill the vacant seat after Gurpreet Gogi’s demise in January this year. Interestingly, no woman has been elected MLA from the constituency so far.
Only one woman — Renu Narang (independent) — is in the fray. She is only the third woman to contest assembly elections from the district. It was only in 2022 that any woman joined the fray for the seat.
