Litmus Test for AAP: Voting Begins In Ludhiana West Bypoll With 14 Candidates And High Stakes
A voter turnout of 8.50 percent was witnessed in the first two hours of polling in the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll on Thursday.
Amid tight security arrangements, the polling began at 7 am and it will continue till 6 pm.
The counting of votes will be held on June 23.
The Ludhiana West Assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
There are a total of 14 candidates in the fray and 1,75,469 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise - 85,371 of them women and 10 belonging to the third gender.
AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora reached a polling station along with his family members to exercise his franchise. Before casting votes, Arora paid obeisance at a gurdwara, a temple and the Dargah Pir in Phillaur.
Speaking to reporters, Arora appealed to the people to come out in large numbers to cast their votes.
"Please come out to vote and have maximum voting today," he said.
Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu and BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta also reached polling stations in the morning to cast their votes.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to voters to cast their votes in the bypoll.
"My appeal to the voters of Ludhiana West is that you must exercise your right to vote. You must fulfil your duty for the development and progress of your area. Do not consider today a holiday, definitely go and cast your vote," Mann said in a post on X in Punjabi.
A total of 194 polling stations are there for the bypoll with 100 per cent live webcasting of polling stations, officials said.
Outside the entrance of polling stations, designated counters were set up for voters to securely deposit their mobile devices.
These counters were managed by trained volunteers using jute or cloth bag mobile holders.
The voting process will be monitored in real-time from the integrated command and control centre located at the district administrative complex. As many as 235 CCTV cameras have been installed at polling stations, said officials.
The ruling AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha member 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.
The Congress has placed its bet on former minister and Punjab Congress working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu (51). Ashu had been MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gogi by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Assembly polls.
The BJP has field party's senior leader Jiwan Gupta. He is a member of the core committee of Punjab BJP. He was earlier the party's state general secretary.
SAD named Parupkar Singh Ghuman as its candidate for the bypoll. Ghuman is a lawyer and the former president of Ludhiana Bar Association.
The Ludhiana West bypoll is seen as a litmus test for Mann and the ruling party's national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this 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.)
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