Ludhiana West bypoll: AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora takes early lead

Ludhiana: AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora was leading with a margin of 1,269 votes against his nearest rival and Congress nominee Bharat Bhushan Ashu from the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab on Monday, according to initial trends.

After the first round of counting, Arora had 2,895 votes and Ashu 1,626. BJP's Jiwan Gupta was in the third spot with 1,117 votes.

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.

There were 14 candidates in the fray.