Ludhiana West bypoll: Congress suffers setback as infighting takes heavy toll

The clear victory of AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora over Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu in the Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll on Monday was the ‘writing on the wall’.

Much to the disappointment of Congress leaders, the vote count revealed that Ashu fell significantly short of the 32,000 votes he secured in the 2022 Assembly polls, where he was defeated by AAP’s Gurpreet Bassi Gogi. The bypoll was necessitated by Gogi’s sudden demise earlier this year in January.

Besides Sanjeev Arora’s personal connect with voters and the advantage of AAP being the ruling party in Punjab, infighting within Congress allowed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to build a negative narrative against the grand old party.

Despite Ashu’s aggressive campaign efforts, his visible differences with the state leadership severely damaged his winning prospects. The Ludhiana bypoll campaign was effectively run in parallel by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, with party’s state chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and CLP leader Partap Singh Bajwa noticeably absent. In fact, Ashu ensured top leadership stayed away from the campaign trail.

The Congress campaign was largely led by MLA Rana Gurjeet, Pargat Singh, and former CM Charanjit Singh Channi.

Meanwhile, the faction-ridden Congress lost momentum during the crucial final stages, even as the BJP deployed its big guns, including the Haryana and Delhi Chief Ministers. AAP, on the other hand, made the bypoll a prestige issue and mobilised resources extensively.

AICC Punjab Affairs in-charge Bhupesh Baghel appeared in Ludhiana only a day before canvassing ended. Earlier, he was present when Ashu filed his nomination papers.

The internal discord was further exposed during a closed-door meeting with Baghel at the PPCC office, where senior leaders expressed concerns about the state leadership’s lack of involvement in the campaign.

Baghel was cautioned that factional fighting could be a “self-goal,” warning that the bypoll could either be a “take-off point” for BJP ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls or an opportunity for Congress to rebuild its support among urban Hindu voters.

A win for AAP, meanwhile, reinforced its credibility based on governance and work on the ground.

Ludhiana