Ludhiana West bypoll: Major local issues lost amid political rhetoric, mud-slinging

With less than a week left to elect the new MLA from the Ludhiana West Assembly constituency, which goes to the bypoll on June 19, local issues concerning the public at large seems to have been lost in the political rhetoric and mud-slinging between ruling and opposition parties.

Instead of listing out their action plan to resolve the main public issues, senior leaders of almost all parties are busy spewing venom on each other.

“Be it the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, CM Bhagwnat Mann, former CM Charanjit Channi, Kapurthala Congress MLA Rana Gurjeet, SAD president Sukhbir Badal or BJP state head Sunil Jakhar, all leaders seem more focused on hitting below the belt of their political opponents,” said Dr SS Johl, former chancellor of the Central University of Punjab.

He said the parties know that the Ludhiana bypoll results will be a referendum not only for the ruling AAP, but also for the Congress and the BJP ahead of the General Assembly election scheduled for early 2027.

“Real issues in the constituency have not been discussed by anyone so far,” he quipped.

The major issues concerning the common man in Ludhiana West, which is a purely urban segment in the heart of the city, included deteriorating law and order situation, waterlogging during rainy season, stray dog menace, providing proprietary rights to residents of Jawahar Nagar Camp colony, cleaning of the Buddha Nullah, completion of the city centre, proper functioning of the district transport office and last but not the least, poor basic civic amenities for which voters are seeking time-bound and permanent action plan, said Nankana Sahib Public School principal Harmeet Kaur Waraich.

Another voter in the Ludhiana West constituency, Shiv Puri, who is a stock broker and financial advisor said everyone knows what was happening in the state. “Let us not politicise the issue and focus on what you can do for the people of the segment. Traffic congestion, lack of parking space in Feroze Gandhi Market and snatching incidents need to be taken care of,” he said.

The shifting of industry from Ludhiana and the erratic power supply are also issues about which candidates did not provide much attention. The member of the working committee of the Federation of Indian Exports Organisations (FIEO), Avinash Gupta, said for industrial city such as Ludhiana, these were major issues and candidates must provide assurance to the industry that they would provide the best suitable environment for the industry to grow, in addition to the 24-hour uninterrupted power supply.

Amit Jain, another industrialist and voter in Ludhiana West, said the candidates must not deviate from the particular constituency and talk about issues here. “The state will be taken care of in the 2027 elections, now, the bypoll is going to be held for Ludhiana West, where we need proper parking spaces in markets. There are no markets where parking space is provided, except Sarabha Nagar and Malhar Road. Markets such as Ghumar Mandi, BRS Nagar, Dandi Swami and Model Town need proper parking facilities for the residents,” he said.

The Ludhiana West bypoll was necessitated following the death of the sitting AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. About 1.75 lakh voters will decide the fate of the candidates on Thursday.

All main candidates in fray — Sanjeev Arora from AAP, Jiwan Gupta from the BJP, Bharat Bhushan Ashu from the Congress and Parupkar Singh Ghuman from the SAD, however, claimed to redress all major issues concerning the people in the constituency, if they were elected.