Ludhiana West bypoll: AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora in the lead with 3,600 votes

Ludhiana: AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora was leading with a margin of 3,060 votes against his nearest rival and BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta from the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab on Monday, according to initial trends.

After three rounds of counting, Arora had polled 8,277 votes and Gupta 5,217.

Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who was ahead of Gupta in the first two rounds, slipped to the third spot with 5,094 votes. Shiromani Akali Dal nominee Parupkar Singh Ghuman was fourth with 2,575 votes.

There were 14 candidates in the fray.

The counting of votes for the June 19 bypoll began at 8 am at a centre set up at Khalsa College for Women here.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.

A voter turnout of 51.33 per cent was recorded in the bypoll, a sharp drop from the 64 per cent voting registered in the 2022 state polls.