Lok Sabha elections: Why AAP is struggling to find a winnable candidate in Ludhiana again

AAP is now the ruling party in Punjab, but its perennial problem to find a winnable candidate in Ludhiana for the 2024 polls continues. AAP had faced a similar situation during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when it finally fielded young professor Tejpal Singh Gill from Ludhiana only to face a massive drubbing.

In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AAP fielded young prof Tejpal Singh Gill from Ludhiana but faced a massive drubbing. (Source: Facebook/Tejpal Singh Gill)

While Bittu retained the seat, AAP ended a distant fourth, with just over 15,000 votes. It was a major setback for the party, which had secured second place in 2014 in its first poll battle from Ludhiana when Phoolka had lost to Bittu in a nail-biting finish.

For the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, several names doing rounds for AAP in Ludhiana, including former Congress MLA Jasbir Singh, alias Jassi Khangura, AAP’s national spokesperson Ahbaab Grewal, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, party’s Jagraon MLA Sarvjit Kaur Manuke and Ludhiana West MLA Gurpreet Singh Gogi.

Also in the reckoning is young social activist-cum-social media influencer Anmol Kwatra. Jassi Khangura, a former Congress MLA from the erstwhile Qila Raipur constituency of Ludhiana, had joined AAP in 2022 after resigning from the Congress ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls that year. A former British citizen, he is an agriculturist and hotelier and owns the high-end Park Plaza Hotel in the city.

Ahbaab Grewal (45), now the national spokesperson of AAP, had unsuccessfully contested from Ludhiana West in the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections and lost to Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu by a margin of over 36,000 votes.

However, Grewal has come a long way in AAP since he joined the party in 2012 as a volunteer. He is now the party’s national spokesperson for nearly three years. Grewal, a resident of Ludhiana, worked in London for almost three years before returning to Punjab and joining AAP. His wife and he also used to run an English language learning institute in the city.

Arora is a prominent industrialist and philanthropist in the city. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the party in 2022. First-time MLA Gurpreet Gogi is a former Congressman who joined AAP ahead of the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections and defeated Ashu from Ludhiana West, a former Congress minister. Manuke, a former schoolteacher and ex-deputy leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha (when AAP was in Opposition in 2017), is a two-time MLA from Jagraon.

“For AAP, Phoolka’s shoes were too big to fill in when it comes to Ludhiana. Since then, it has always been a struggle to find a winnable candidate as Ludhiana is a big constituency with both urban and rural voters. It also has sizeable Hindu voters. The party is pondering over all these factors,” said a senior AAP leader.

An AAP MLA, however, said the party is most likely to pick “a Hindu candidate” for Ludhiana due to several reasons.

“Of the nine Assembly constituencies in Ludhiana parliamentary seat, six are urban (west, east, central, Atam Nagar, south and north) and dominated by traders, businessmen and industrialists from the Hindu community. Also, if the SAD-BJP alliance takes place, Ludhiana can go in BJP’s kitty. They will also field a Hindu candidate. Congress MP Bittu is also facing strong anti-incumbency. The situation for AAP is very different this time. Of the nine Assembly segments, eight have AAP MLAs (except Dakha) so it is not going to be an easy ride for Bittu,” said the AAP MLA.

Former MLA and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) chief Simrajeet Singh Bains, who is out on bail in a rape case, is yet to announce his plan for the election. In 2019, Bains had secured the second-highest votes after Bittu, leaving behind SAD and AAP. While the buzz was that Bains might join the BJP, the rape charges came haunting him again, said sources.

Bittu, the grandson of late CM Beant Singh, is looking at a hattrick and hoping that Congress will bet on him once again despite strong anti-incumbency.