Latest news with #SanjeevArora
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Security, surveillance in place for counting of votes tomorrow
Ludhiana: District election officer Himanshu Jain Saturday said elaborate arrangements are in place for the smooth counting of votes polled for the Ludhiana West bypoll. At sharp 7 am on June 23, the counting of votes and postal ballots will commence in the presence of election observers, candidates, and their authorised representatives. An official statement said robust security measures, including the deployment of paramilitary forces at the counting centres to safeguard electronic voting machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines, have been implemented. The entire process is being continuously monitored through CCTV surveillance. The DEO emphasised that entry to the counting centres will be strictly regulated, allowing only candidates, their representatives, media personnel, and authorised individuals with valid identity cards issued by the ECI. Fourteen candidates are in the fray for the seat, including AAP's Sanjeev Arora, Congress' Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP's Jiwan Gupta, and SAD's advocate Parupkar Singh Ghuman. Chief electoral officer Sibin C Thursday said the voter turnout, as per data uploaded till 7pm on the voting day, was 51.33%. As part of a new initiative, polling data was uploaded on the ECINET app by the presiding officers at the respective polling stations. A total of 194 polling stations were set up. Besides the provision of assured minimum facilities at each polling station, for the first time, a mobile deposit facility was created at the entrance of all polling stations.
Indian Express
17 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
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.
Hans India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Assembly bypolls: Ludhiana (West) in Punjab sees 33 pc turnout
Chandigarh: Nearly thirty-three per cent of voters exercised their franchise on Thursday till 1 p.m. to elect the legislator for the Ludhiana (West) constituency that fell vacant after the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. The voting started at 7 a.m. In the first two hours, the polling percentage was 8.50 per cent, which rose to 21.51 per cent by 11 am. The polling at 194 polling booths will continue till 6 p.m. The counting of votes will be held on June 23 simultaneously with four other Assembly seats -- two in Gujarat and one each in Kerala and West Bengal. The state ruling Aam Aadmi Party is eyeing to retain the seat, and the main Opposition Congress is aiming to win back the seat that it had represented six times. In total, 14 candidates are in the fray for the urban seat. The BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal have also fielded candidates for the seat. The main contest largely seems between AAP's candidate Sanjeev Arora, the party's Rajya Sabha member and local industrialist, Congress' former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who represented the seat twice from 2012. Ashu was defeated by his friend-turned-foe Gogi, 58, by a margin of 7,512 votes in the 2022 Assembly poll. The BJP has fielded Jiwan Gupta, the party's state unit core committee member, while its former ally, Akali Dal, reposed faith in Parupkar Singh Ghuman, a former president of the Ludhiana Bar Association. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sibin C. said 1,74,437 electorates, comprising 84,825 women and 10 third-gender voters, will cast votes at 194 polling booths set up at 66 locations. These include 10 model polling booths, one all-women, one eco-friendly and one booth operated by Public Works Department (PWD) staff. Additionally, 13 booths have been declared critical, where paramilitary forces have been deployed. To facilitate senior citizens, persons with disabilities and voters with medical issues, home voting was conducted with 239 participants. He said security checkpoints have been established at 54 locations across the constituency, and all activities are being closely monitored by the security forces. By fielding the Rajya Sabha MP, speculations in political circles are rife that AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal, who's active in the state politics after facing humiliating defeat not only of his party but his bastion in Delhi Assembly elections, is going to the Rajya Sabha in his place in case Sanjeev Arora wins the bypoll. However, the party denies that Kejriwal is moving to the Rajya Sabha. Interestingly, in October 2024, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out a raid at the residence of AAP candidate Arora as part of a money laundering probe linked to a land 'fraud' case. The BJP, which is expanding its footprints in the state's Hindu-dominated urban constituencies, is eyeing to give a tough contest to both the state ruling AAP and the Congress by fielding a strong and credible local face with grassroots connect. In the run-up to the polling, the Bharatiya Janata Party carried out a scathing attack on the three-year rule of AAP's governance in Punjab, accusing them of transforming the state into a 'rehabilitation centre' for Kejriwal's rejected Delhi loyalists. BJP leaders like Tarun Chugh, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Manjinder Singh Sirsa claimed that AAP is systematically placing its favoured individuals in key administrative positions, effectively undermining Punjab's autonomy. They argued that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has been reduced to a 'rubber stamp' while Kejriwal operates as a remote puppet master. AAP state President Aman Arora has claimed that the atmosphere during the campaign indicated that the AAP candidate Arora is heading towards a massive victory.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Ludhiana West bypoll: Voting begins for high-stakes election; 1.74 lakh voters to seal the fate of 14 in fray
The voting for the Ludhiana West bypoll, an urban constituency in Punjab, started 7 am, Thursday. A total of 1.74 lakh registered voters will vote after 20 days of intense campaigning which saw more of personal mudslinging by candidates than a focus on the multiple issues that plague this posh, urban constituency of Punjab. Much to the dismay of the common people, the campaigning for the bypoll revolved more around the personal and behavioural traits of candidates such as gussa (anger) and ahankaar (arrogance), than the development issues that need attention. In the four-cornered political battle, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab has a lot at stake in this bypoll, months after it faced defeat in Delhi assembly polls, including its national convener Arvind Kejriwal losing. AAP has fielded its Rajya Sabha member cum industrialist Sanjeev Arora for the bypoll, but his candidature kicked up another political storm for the party as Opposition alleged that he was fielded to make Kejriwal enter the Rajya Sabha. With his individual assets pegged at Rs 288 crore, Arora is the richest poll candidate in Punjab in recent years. The bypoll has been necessitated after AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi died of self-inflicted bullet injury in January this year. In this constituency established since 1977, ten elections have been held so far, but this is the first ever bypoll. Of the ten contests, six were won by Congress, two by SAD, and one each by AAP and erstwhile Janata Party. Most recently in 2012 and 2017, Congress won, and in 2022, AAP. Even as Ludhiana, an industrial city with the population of over 15 lakhs, is plagued with several issues such as severe air, noise pollution, lack of tree cover and green areas, stray dogs, pathetic roads, traffic congestion, lack of parking areas and deteriorating law and order- any of these hardly found a mention in the high-pitched campaigning and mudslinging that parties engaged in, beginning as early as March even when the bypoll was not even announced. The ruling AAP and its candidate Arora built his campaign targeting Congress candidate and former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu over the latter's gussa (anger) and ahankaar (arrogance), as huge hoardings of AAP with the slogan 'Na gussa, na hankaar, Sanjeev Arora iss vaar' (Neither anger, nor arrogance, elect Sanjeev Arora this time), flooded the entire city for nearly two months. The bypoll's high stakes for ruling AAP can be gauged from the fact that Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Man had hit the ground in Ludhiana in March itself, visiting colonies and interacting with the voters. Arora is contesting his first election as earlier he was directly nominated to RS. Arora meanwhile has been dubbed as 'baahari' (outsider) and 'paise wala' (rich) candidate by the candidates of Opposition parties, who according to them 'neither lives in Ludhiana, nor would be able to understand problems of common people.' Congress's Ashu is eyeing a return after he lost to AAP's Gogi in 2022, and thereafter spent over a year in jail after being arrested in an alleged corruption case after AAP came to power. However, the FIRs against him were quashed by the High Court. What might cost him dear is the wide open factionalism in Congress with Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa largely staying away from his campaign. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has fielded advocate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, known for fighting cases for underprivileged pro bono. The 100-year-old party is however facing an existential crisis since it lost 2017 Punjab assembly polls, and is hoping to find its footing again in Punjab's political landscape. What can emerge as a bigger worry for ruling AAP and Congress is the emergence of BJP as an independent contender, SAD's former ally. In 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP secured the highest votes from the Ludhiana West segment, pushing AAP to distant third. BJP has fielded its general secretary Jiwan Gupta, a local face. Both Ghumman and Gupta are also contesting their first election. The election has witnessed widesp allegations of freebies and cash distribution against the ruling AAP, with the Opposition filing multiple complaints to the Election Commission. Opposition parties including the Congress, SAD and BJP have announced that 'AAP's defeat in Ludhiana bypoll would be a beginning of badlaav (change) in Punjab' ahead of 2027 assembly elections. What the candidates have promised: Sanjeev Arora (AAP): 'Ludhiana would soon see road infrastructure resembling that of European countries. The roads would be redesigned taking inspiration from Europe's efficient road networks. Potholes will be fixed and damaged roads will be reconstructed within 100 days. Thousands of trees will be planted. ' Bharat Bhushan Ashu (INC): 'Punjab de faisle Punjabi lainge (Only Punjabis will take decisions related to Punjab). In my past two tenures, 50-60 acres in Ludhiana West were turned into Green Area. People should vote for Congress to get rid of deteriorating law and order. Can (Arvind) Kejriwal answer what will be the status of Rajya Sabha seat if Arora wins or loses?' Jiwan Gupta (BJP): 'It's time to make a difference and vote for progress and growth. People have already chosen Congress, AAP and SAD in the past. Now they should also try BJP in Punjab. Deteriorating law and order and corruption are the biggest issues under AAP.' Parupkar Singh Ghumman (SAD): 'People should vote for me for creating an environment for development, justice and security. As an advocate, I have fought legal battles of the underprivileged and I understand what justice means for common man. I will ensure every citizen's voice is my constituency is heard.' Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on 'Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers' had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Ludhiana: 1.7L voters to lock nominees' fate today
As many as 1.74 lakh voters in Ludhiana West will exercise their right to franchise on Thursday in the by-election which has 14 candidates in fray. The bypoll comes after 20 days of campaigning and will be followed by the counting of votes on June 23. The election is expected to witness a tight four-cornered contest among the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). AAP has nominated Sanjeev Arora, a sitting Rajya Sabha MP and prominent industrialist, whose declared assets, including those of his spouse, amount to ₹301 crore. This makes him the richest candidate in the recent Punjab elections. Arora's candidature has triggered criticism from Opposition leaders who allege that he was made to contest merely to secure a Rajya Sabha seat for Arvind Kejriwal. The Congress has placed its hopes on Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a seasoned politician, former cabinet minister and two-time MLA. The BJP has fielded Jiwan Gupta, a local leader and the party's general secretary, who is contesting his first election. Similarly, the SAD has nominated advocate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, who is known for offering free legal aid to the poor. Both Gupta and Ghumman are debutants in the electoral arena. The by-election was necessitated due to the unfortunate death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi in an accidental firing incident in January. Since the formation of the Ludhiana West seat in 1977, the constituency has witnessed 10 elections. The Congress has won six of these, SAD two, while AAP and the former Janata Party have secured victory once each. In 2022, AAP's Gogi defeated Congress' Ashu, marking AAP's first win from this constituency. The district administration has made extensive preparations to ensure a smooth polling process. District electoral officer and deputy commissioner Himanshu Jain has confirmed that all 194 polling stations will be equipped with masks, sanitizers, tents, fans, drinking water, wheelchairs and ramps to facilitate voters. Strict Covid-19 safety measures will be in place and polling will be closely monitored through webcasting to maintain transparency. In an innovative move, the Election Commission of India has introduced a mobile phone deposit facility at every polling booth this time. Special arrangements have also been made to encourage inclusive voting. A women-staffed polling station has been set up at Lodhi Club in Rajguru Nagar. Persons with disabilities (PwDs) will manage a polling station at BVM School in Kitchlu Nagar, while a green polling station has been established inside the PAU campus at the Government Senior Secondary School. Ten model polling booths have also been created to showcase ideal voting conditions. Additionally, the 'Vote from Home' initiative has been launched for senior citizens and voters with disabilities. On the eve of the election, 194 polling teams departed from Khalsa College for Women in GPS-enabled vehicles to reach their designated locations. Security arrangements have also been tightened in the constituency. Additional deputy commissioner of police (operations) Ramandeep Singh Bhullar stated that 60 checkpoints have been established and 19 patrol teams are actively monitoring the area. There are also 21 flying squads and nine strategic surveillance teams in place. More than 1,000 police personnel will be deployed on election day to ensure law and order. Historically, Ludhiana West has recorded strong voter turnouts. Since 1977, voter participation has consistently stayed above 55%. In 2012, 2017 and 2022, the voter turnout crossed the 60% mark, reaching close to 70% in 2012 and 2017. The political stakes are high, particularly for AAP, which is looking to recover from its recent defeat in the Delhi assembly elections, where even party leader Arvind Kejriwal lost his seat. Arora, contesting his first assembly election after being nominated to the Rajya Sabha, is seen as a key figure in AAP's plan to regain ground. Congress' Bharat Bhushan Ashu is aiming for a comeback after losing in 2022 and spending over a year in jail following a corruption case. Though the high court quashed the charges against him, internal rifts within the party may affect his prospects. The SAD, once a dominant player in Punjab politics, is attempting to rebuild its influence after two successive electoral defeats in 2017 and 2022. The party is banking on Ghumman's clean image and social work to strike a chord with voters, but it faces an uphill battle to regain relevance. Meanwhile, the BJP is trying to gain foothold in Punjab. The party performed strongly in Ludhiana West during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where it secured the highest number of votes in the segment, pushing AAP to a distant third. Its candidate Jiwan Gupta, a local resident, hopes to ride on this momentum to achieve victory in his maiden electoral contest.
