‘If pardhaan saab expects an invite for everything, he should just sit comfortably in Chandigarh’: Bharat Bhushan Ashu after Ludhiana loss

Ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly elections, this was a crucial bypoll. How are you seeing this result?

Our numbers aren’t that bad. I would just say one thing that the election has been won by the AAP government’s brazen high-handedness and misuse of power, not its works. Sarkaar ki power jeeti hai, sarkaar ke kaam nahi jeete hain. I take the entire responsibility of this defeat.

Why do you think that Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of opposition Partap Bajwa stayed away from campaign?

They should answer this themselves. If they wanted to come, they should have and campaigned for the party. How can I install any barriers to stop someone from coming? Am I an officer who issues visas to allow or disallow someone to come to Ludhiana. It was their own will to come or not to come. It wasn’t my wedding that I should have sent personal invites.

So, is Congress a divided house as AAP and other parties say?

If such allegations exist, then it is the responsibility of the pardhan (state president Warring) and LoP (Bajwa) to rectify it, not ours.

Warring has claimed that he was there for campaigning wherever he was called.

Agar pardhan apne liye invitation ka intezaar kar raha hai, bade afsos ki baat hai. Phir invitation kahin se bhi nahi aayega. Usko aaram se Chandigarh mein baithna chahiye. (If the party’s state president has to wait for an invite, then it’s very disappointing. That invite won’t come from anywhere. Then he should just sit comfortably in Chandigarh).

Warring also said that when your candidature for the bypoll was announced, he had reached your residence in Ludhiana to meet but you were not present.

Then he might have joined me in my campaign. When did I stop him?

Has there been any phone call or discussion with state leadership, either Bajwa or Warring, after the loss?

No, we haven’t spoken. In fact, there has been no call from their side since I came out of jail.

Why are you taking the responsibility of the loss alone?

Ladaai main akela hi lada hu to akele hi zimmewari lunga (Since I fought this election alone, so I am solely responsible).

So are you saying that other party leaders did not support you?

No, they did. Many of them including (former CM) Charanjit Channi, Rana Gurjeet, Pargat Singh campaigned for me extensively. But the responsibility is of those who hold party posts. Since I am the working president, I took the responsibility and resigned. How can I answer this that why some others did not join my campaign. Since they did not want to come, I also did not feel like inviting them. Everyone is asking about Raja Warring, but this election was not of Raja but mine. Votes in Ludhiana are not cast in Raja’s name. It was my election and there were other issues which led to this result.

Can you please elaborate on those issues which you think led to the defeat for Congress.

Sarkaar jeeti hai (The ruling government has won). Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann used to say that AAP government will do so many developmental works that AAP won’t even need to ask for votes. But then why the situation came that they had to loot and buy the votes. This is the reason why we lost, not what is perceived that it was due to Congress’s infighting. The AAP government failed to such an extent that they had to adopt every hatthkanda (trick) to win this election, by hook or crook. Brazen misuse of power and administrative machinery by the AAP government was the reason for our loss, not the internal issues of our party. The election has been won by AAP solely on the basis of danda (high-handedness). AAP got majority votes from slums and bastis and we all know why and how and what all they distributed. How could they have lost when police itself was functioning as AAP workers. Their own state president Aman Arora was nowhere to be seen in Ludhiana except a few occasions.

The AAP, including Mann, also targeted you for your behavior throughout the campaign calling you ahankaari (arrogant). Do you think they were successful in building that perception of yours among voters?

Maybe. Now when they have won, they can say anything. How can I say if I am arrogant or not. It is for people to tell who know me well.