Ludhiana West bypoll result: BJP fails to retain Lok Sabha gains in urban seat; SAD’s downward spiral continues

AAP’s Sanjeev Arora won the bypoll by a margin of over 10,000 votes defeating Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu, while BJP’s Jiwan Gupta finished third.

However, the only solace for the BJP was that it could finish ahead of its former ally SAD.

The bypoll results indicate that the BJP could not increase its vote share compared to both 2022 Punjab assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

A total of 20,323 votes were polled in Gupta’s favour, which comes to 22.54% vote share.

This is slightly lower than party’s vote share in 2022 Punjab assembly elections when its candidate Bikram Sidhu got 23.95% votes.

The 2022 assembly elections in Punjab were the first that the BJP had contested independently after parting ways with its ally SAD in 2020.

Though the party was looking for some major gains in Ludhiana bypoll ahead of 2027 Punjab assembly elections, it has barely managed to retain the 2022 vote share.

BJP and SAD vote share from Ludhiana West

The party was riding high on the success of 2024 Lok Sabha polls when it had polled the highest (45,000) votes from Ludhiana West, even as Ravneet Singh Bittu had lost.

But the bypoll results indicate that the saffron party could not retain even half of its vote-bank of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with just 20k votes polled in its favour.

However, the overall voter turnout was also higher in 2024 Lok Sabha polls than the bypoll.

After parting ways with SAD in 2020, the BJP is still trying to find its feet in Punjab’s political landscape.

The BJP was expecting some positive gains from the bypoll as its entire senior leadership- from Union ministers Anurag Thakur, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Hardeep Singh Puri to CMs Rekha Gupta (Delhi) and Nayab Singh Saini (Haryana) had come to Ludhiana to campaign for Gupta.

Bittu, Union Minister of State for railways, had even promised projects worth crores from the Centre for Punjab, and told voters that “PM Narendra Modi loved Punjab so much that he elevated him (Bittu) as union minister even as he lost Lok Sabha election from Ludhiana.”

But all this seemed to have little effect on voters, as party’s vote share registered a minor dip this time since 2022, even as the BJP’s leadership was expecting a major increase, if not a win for Gupta. They were even hopeful of finishing second, leaving behind Congress.

However, Bittu Monday said that he “takes responsibility of the defeat”, and added that “delayed announcement of Gupta’s candidature” was one reason that the party could not perform exceptionally well.

“Since the party high command was busy in Operation Sindoor, our candidate announcement got too late. Even then Gupta managed over 20,000 votes which is an exceptional feat. I take full responsibility of this defeat. Moreover, the low voter turnout of 51% shows that people did not have much interest in the bypoll. Of 90,000 votes polled, the ruling AAP has got just 35k votes which shows that majority people did not want AAP,” said Bittu, adding, “We will be winning this seat with huge margin in 2027.”

Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said that the party fought the bypoll with complete unity and the “votes received by BJP indicate that people of Punjab are now looking for a solid alternative to AAP and Congress.”

“This election was a signal that it is high time for BJP to start work with full preparation for 2027. This election is also a mirror for AAP which fought with its entire government machinery but could secure a win only by a narrow margin,” said Jakhar.

Jiwan Gupta, meanwhile, accused the AAP of winning the bypoll by adopting unethical practices such as distributing freebies and ration ahead of voting.

“I had got only 12 days for campaigning and still we got 22% votes, nearly equal to 2022 numbers. We are now ready for 2027,” he said.

With 9% votes, SAD’s existential crisis continues

Once a power to reckon with in Punjab, SAD continues to battle existential crisis.

Even as SAD president and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal camped in Ludhiana for several days and campaigned for candidate Parupkar Singh Ghumman, the party could manage just 9% votes in the bypoll, and Ghumman ending up losing his security deposit.