BJP Names Ludhiana West By-poll Candidate, AAP Candidate Richest Ever

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has named party leader Jiwan Gupta as its candidate for the 19 Jun Ludhiana West Assembly by-poll. With assets worth USD 32M, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Sanjeev Arora is the richest candidate ever in Panjab elections. Arora landed himself in a controversy when he fenced off the grounds of Government College for Girls to make a parking lot. When students of the college came to know of it, they protested against the move and finally removed the fences and locked the college gate. Arora is also getting flak from BJP for claiming many union govt. schemes such as Halwara airport, the Ludhiana railway station revamp, elevated roads, and bridges over the Sidhwan Canal as his initiatives. Meanwhile, Satnam Singh Sunny Master, a sitting AAP councilor from Ward 58, which falls in Ludhiana West assembly segment joined the Indian National Congress (INC). Sunny Master said he was completely disillusioned with the AAP after seeing it from inside. He said they were all fake revolutionaries. He said he was deeply disturbed the way the AAP leadership was handing over the posts and positions, which are the right of the Panjabis, to people from Delhi and other places. Recently, Preeti Malhotra, AAP's women wing president also aired the same grievance. On 2 Jun, AAP removed her from the post. Malhotra has been protesting against the alleged lack of attention given to the party’s old activists. She claimed that the party was now 'dominated by people who have come from other parties' or were imported from Delhi. She alleged that these defeated leaders from Delhi were damaging the party’s policy and vision in Panjab. INC's Member of Parliament Charanjit Singh Channi said AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal aspires to be the 'only Hindu community leader in the Panjab.' Channi also claimed that a month before his death, Gurpreet Gogi, who was then the AAP’s Ludhiana West MLA, had expressed desire to return to the INC fold as he was fed up with the AAP (earlier coverage).