Ludhiana West bypoll: SAD to field fresher Parupkar Singh Ghuman

Ghuman, a prominent lawyer and former president of the Ludhiana Bar Association, has also served as a member of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana. Badal visited Ludhiana last week and held meetings with party district leadership, even before he was reappointed as the party president.

SAD spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema stated that Badal had a detailed discussion with senior party leaders as well as all senior leaders of Ludhiana, including sitting and former municipal councillors, before reaching a conclusion. “Keeping in view of Ghuman’s services to the party, his name was recommended unanimously by all,” Cheema said.

Notably, Manpreet Singh Ayali, the lone SAD MLA from Dakha constituency of Ludhiana district, has distanced himself from party activities and is conducting a parallel SAD membership drive along with four others, following the directions of Giani Raghbir Singh, former Akal Takht Jathedar, in December 2024. Meanwhile, the SAD led by Sukhbir Singh Badal, on its part, conducted another membership drive and re-elected Badal as party chief. The rebel faction, however, does not acknowledge this re-election.

Ayali has not attended SAD meetings since April 2022 and openly demanded a leadership change after the 2022 poll debacle.

The SAD had a dismal performance in the 2022 Assembly elections across Punjab, including Ludhiana West, where its candidate — former minister Maheshinder Grewal — finished fourth with just 10,072 votes, thus losing his security deposit. BJP’s Bikram Singh Sidhu came third with 28,107 votes, while AAP’s Gurpreet Singh Gogi defeated Congress’s Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 7,512 votes. Even in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, SAD candidate Ranjit Singh Dhillon had lost his security deposit from Ludhiana Lok Sabha as he had finished fourth.

While the AAP has announced Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora as its candidate and Congress is once again backing Ashu, the BJP is yet to declare its nominee.

Badal also announced a five-member campaign committee comprising Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal, Heera Singh Gabria, Harish Rai Dhanda, Pritpal Singh Pali, and Cheema, who will act as the coordinator for the bypoll.

During the SAD-BJP alliance from 1996 to 2020, Ludhiana West was traditionally contested by the Shiromani Akali Dal. The party won the seat twice — first in 1997 when Maheshinder Grewal emerged victorious and was later appointed as a cabinet minister, and then in 2007, when Harish Rai Dhanda won and served as a chief parliamentary secretary.

In fact, since 1977, the SAD has won this constituency only twice, and both times it was during the alliance with the BJP.