Close aide-turned-rival, AAP candidate Gogi trounces Ashu

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, March 21

A close aide-turned-rival, Gurpreet Bassi Gogi, of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has trounced the two-time Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu, from Ludhiana West Assembly constituency. Ashu was the Food Minister in the previous state governments led by Charanjit Singh Channi and Capt Amarinder Singh.

Gogi, 54, demolished the Congress citadel and wrested control over the urban seat Ludhiana West as Ashu, 49, who had won with a maximum margin in the district in 2017, bit the dust while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) former Minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal, 72, and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) first-timer Tarun Jain Bawa, 49, among five nominees lost their security deposits. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first-timer Bikram Singh Sidhu, 50, finished third.

Gogi polled 40,443 votes, which accounted for 34.46 per cent of the total polled votes, to rout Ashu, who got 32,931 votes, constituting 28.06 per cent vote share, by a margin of 7,512 votes. Sidhu secured 28,107 votes, accounting for 23.95 per cent vote share.

Those, who lost their security deposits by failing to get even the minimum required 16.67 per cent of the total polled votes, included the SAD’s heavyweight former Minister Maheshinder Singh Grewal, an industrialist Tarun Jain Bawa of the SSM, who was also a close aide of Ashu before parting ways ahead of the February 20 Vidhan Sabha elections, Anita Shah, 42, of the Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP), Sarbjit Kaur, 34, of the Aas Punjab Party (APP), and a dismissed DSP Balwinder Sekhon, 58, who fought as an Independent candidate.

Know your MLA

Gurpreet Bassi Gogi, 54, was a three-time sitting municipal councillor from Ward No. 76 falling under Ludhiana West and former district urban president of the Congress. Having graduated from Vinayak Missions University, Salem, in Tamil Nadu, in 2012, Gogi was a close aide of former Food Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu before quitting the Congress and joining the AAP in January, barely a month ahead of the February 20 Assembly polls. A realtor and petroleum dealer, Gogi had replaced AAP’s Ahbaab Singh Grewal, the runner-up in the 2017 elections.

“I was forced to quit the Congress after serving for over 22 years when the party became an individual’s private limited company, where there was no say of loyalists like me,” said the firebrand new MLA, while vowing better education, health, civic amenities, permanent solution to traffic congestion, and proper implementation of the Smart City project.

Having also served as the PSIEC chairman during Capt Amarinder Singh’s regime, Gogi’s wife Sukhchain Kaur Bassi, who had done PhD from Singhania University, Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan in 2014, was also a former municipal councillor. He had parted ways with Ashu after he was not considered for the post of Mayor in 2018.

“People were fed up with the corrupt practices and arrogance of the previous rulers,” Gogi asserted, while adding that there will be no place for corruption and arrogance in the new regime.

Congress’ worst show

It was the worst-ever show of the Congress this time as the party polled the lowest-ever vote share in Ludhiana West, which it had won a maximum of six times, ever since its inception in 1977.

While the Congress got 28.06 per cent votes this time, the party had secured 54.86 per cent vote share in 2017, 62.81 per cent in 2012, 39.17 per cent in 2007, 52.85 per cent in 2002, 38.12 per cent in 1997, 45.35 per cent in 1992, 46.17 per cent in 1985, 51.5 per cent in 1980, and had polled 42.6 per cent votes in 1977.

Past trend

Bharat Bhushan Ashu of the Congress had won Ludhiana West in 2017 and 2012, Harish Rai Dhanda of the SAD in 2007, Harnam Das Johar of the Congress in 2002, 1992, and 1985, Joginder Pall Pandey of the Congress in 1980, and A Vishwanathan of the Janata Party in 1977.

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