Pandey repeats 2012 feat

The result of Ludhiana North constituency was a repeat of 2012 Assembly elections, except from the fact that sitting MLA Rakesh Pandey of Indian National Congress won with a bigger margin over BJP's Parveen Bansal. 

With many contenders for the seat including SAD rebel Madan Lal Bagga, Congress-rebel and sitting councillor Hemraj Aggarwal contesting as independents and Lok Insaaf Party's Randhir Singh Sibia also in the fray, all were on tenterhooks in Ludhiana North counting centre at Gymnasium Hall of the PAU. 

Sibia started leading in the first couple of rounds. It turned out to be a fight between Rakesh Pandey of the Congress and BJP's Parveen Bansal in the subsequent rounds. Bansal led in the beginning, but Pandey started to win after that. Pandey eventually received 44,864 votes, winning over Bansal with a margin of 5,132 votes. In 2012 polls, the margin between the candidates was around 2,000 votes. In fact, Pandey's name was declared in the last list declared by the Congress. Aged 61, sitting MLA Pandey, a matriculate, has been a Cabinet minister in the 2002-2007 Congress government. He has won the seat for the fifth time, having won in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2012 as well. He lost the seat to Harish Bedi of BJP in 2007. 

— Gurvinder Singh

Top three candidates

• 1st: Rakesh Pandey  - (Congress) Votes polled: 44,864  
• 2nd: Parveen Bansal - (BJP) Votes polled: 39,732 
• 3rd: Randhir Singh Sivia - (LIP) Votes polled: 20,387