17 hours ago
Day after high-stake Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll: Leaders unwind with family, sip tea with party colleagues
After an intense and tiring campaign in the hot and sultry weather, candidates from different political parties finally took some time off. While some leaders chose to relax and spend time with their families, others also held some informal interactions with their party workers.
For Sanjeev Arora, whose campaign lasted over 3.5 months — as he was announced the candidate in the last week of February—Friday was a much-needed pause. 'I allowed myself a rare indulgence — I slept in and started the day slow. Upon waking up, I requested my team and the Municipal Corporation to begin the process of removing all campaign-related material, including posters, wall wraps, and stickers across the constituency,' he said.
He added that he had a light breakfast. 'And more importantly, spent quality time with my family — something I had deeply missed during the campaign. I was finally able to be present with my grandchildren, Aria, Anhad, and Ivaan. Hearing them say, 'Dadu, it's so nice to finally see you — we were only seeing you on posters and hoardings!' was a heartfelt reminder of how much time I had been away,' he said, adding that they had lunch together as a family, and he took them all out to their favourite restaurant.
Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who had a heated campaign, had a sore throat on Friday. He said, 'I am meeting all my friends who had helped me throughout the campaign despite all odds. But Friday's meeting was just a thanksgiving gesture. I wanted to have a cup of tea with them and we discussed nothing political.'
Earlier in the day, he had also spent time with his workers at his office inside his house in Model Gram. Ashu, along with his wife Mamta Ashu, spent the evening with friends sipping their favourite 'kadak chai'.
When asked about the outcome of the poll, he said, 'Will accept the result as it is.'
BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta also spent time with his family, even entering his home kitchen to make a cup of tea for himself and his wife. 'We hadn't sat together for even 5 minutes in the past many days. So, we decided to drink tea together after a lazy start to the day.'
SAD candidate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, however, hit the gym on Friday morning—something he had been missing for the past many days. He said, 'I had been a regular to the gym for the past four years, either early in the morning or late at night… but as I couldn't exercise all these days, I want to get back to my fitness routine yet again. As I am a diabetic, I take care of my health by doing regular exercise apart from focusing on diet.' He said that he had presented his vision before the masses and that now it was over to the voters, with the verdict due on Monday. The bypoll for Ludhiana West Assembly, which was held on Thursday, saw 51.33% polling. Counting will take place on June 23.
A post poll scrutiny of Form-17 A and other documents for Ludhiana West by-poll was conducted by General Observer Rajeev Kumar, Returning Officer Rupinder Pal Singh and the representatives of the candidates at Khalsa College For Women.
The scrutiny was carried out to check the polling station where any significant event EVM related or otherwise was reported, whether polling took place in the absence of any polling agent, polling stations where the number of electors who cast their vote using documents other than electronic photo identity card ( EPIC) and exceeding 25% of the total votes cast in the polling station, polling stations where more than 10% of electors have been identified as ASD turned up to vote, polling stations where polling percentage is plus 15% or minus 15 % than the average polling percentage of the AC and others.
