Ludhiana West bypoll: My fight is against Kejriwal, says Congress candidate Ashu

Congress candidate for Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll Bharat Bhushan Ashu on Sunday said his fight was not against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate but party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who was allegedly fighting for his own backdoor entry to Rajya Sabha from Punjab.

Addressing a series of meetings across the Assembly constituency, Ashu said everyone knows it too well that AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora was "reluctant" to contest.

The former cabinet minister claimed that Arora had put up a "strong resistance" against contesting as he knew the ground situation, but he was forced to contest since AAP wanted to create a vacancy for Kejriwal and send him to Rajya Sabha through the backdoor.

"In the process, they are sacrificing poor Arora," Ashu said.

Ashu, who is also the Punjab Congress working president, said that Arora has realised that the ground has already "slipped out" of the AAP's feet.

Lashing out at the AAP government over the recent hooch tragedy in Amritsar, Ashu said people were dying of consuming spurious liquor and the ruling party was claiming to have finished the drugs.

Ashu said the AAP was "completely exposed" as not only had they "failed on the promises they had made, but had pushed the state into anarchy." He said snatchings and ransom calls have become a "routine" in the state as the criminals have no fear of law.

The Ludhiana West seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. The date for the bypoll has not been announced yet.