Ludhiana West By-Poll on 19 Jun; Vigilance Bureau Arrests AAP MLA

The Ludhiana (West) by-poll will be held on 19 Jun and the results will be out 23 Jun. The Aam Aadmi Party has named Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) Member of Parliament (MP) Sanjeev Arora, Indian National Congress (INC) has named former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Shiromani Akali Dal has named Parupkar Singh Ghuman and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to name its candidate. Meanwhile, the Union government has imposed a drastic cut in Panjab's open market borrowing limit. The state has been accorded approval to borrow USD 2.5B for the first nine months of the ongoing financial year (April-December), as against USD 4.1B Panjab had demanded for this time period. The AAP govt. is also facing flak for recently appointing 31 people as chairpersons of corporations and other govt. organizations. Reena Gupta, an AAP national spokesperson from Delhi, considered close to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, has been appointed as chairperson of Punjab Pollution Control Board. Deepak Chouhan, aide of Rajya Sabha member Dr Sandeep Pathak from Uttar Pradesh has been appointed as chairperson of Punjab Large Industrial Development Board. Prabhvir Brar, a close aide of Delhi’s former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia from Panjab has been appointed chairperson of Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited. INC leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira termed the appointments of Chouhan and Gupta as 'double blunder' and an insult to the AAP volunteers from Panjab. Panjab BJP chief Sunil Jhakkar said, ‘The CM is outsourcing Panjab’s governance to Delhi bosses.’ On 23 May, the Panjab Vigilance Bureau arrested Jalandhar Central AAP Member of Legislative Assembly Raman Arora in a corruption case involving former Assistant Town Planner Sukhdev Vashisht. Arora allegedly used Vashisht to issue bogus notices and extort money from targeted individuals. AAP stated: 'Mann’s big action against corruption. No one is above the law—not even those within AAP' (earlier coverage).