The Congress Friday late introduced former minister and Punjab Congress’s working president Bharat Bhushan Ashu ,54, as its candidate for the upcoming Ludhiana West bypoll. He’s a two-time former MLA from this seat.
His candidature was permitted by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, based on a press launch issued by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
The ruling Aam Aadmi Social gathering (AAP) has already introduced its Rajya Sabha member cum industrialist Sanjeev Arora as candidate for the by-poll.
Ashu is among the many few distinguished Hindu faces of the Congress in Punjab.
Not too long ago, Ashu had met senior Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and mentioned that “winds of actual change will blow from Ludhiana West and can storm throughout Punjab by 2027” and “AAP rout will start from Ludhiana.”
The bypoll to Ludhiana West, an city constituency dominated by enterprise and commerce group, was necessitated after the demise of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi who died in January this 12 months on account of a self-inflicted gunshot damage in head. Gogi, a first-time MLA, had defeated Ashu in 2022 Punjab meeting elections by over 7,000 votes.
Ashu had gained from Ludhiana West in 2012 and 2017 consecutively, and remained meals and civil provides minister throughout the earlier Congress authorities.
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Ashu was elevated as Punjab Congress’s working president in April 2022 after the celebration suffered loss within the state meeting elections and AAP stormed to energy.
After AAP got here to energy in 2022, Ashu was arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in August 2022 within the alleged multi-crore foodgrain transportation rip-off. He remained in jail for practically seven months earlier than getting bail from the Excessive Court docket in March 2023. Later, he was additionally arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in August 2024 for alleged cash laundering associated to the identical case and was once more bailed out in December 2024. In the identical month, the HC additionally quashed the FIRs registered in opposition to him by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau calling it a “pure vendetta.”
Thought of extraordinarily near Rahul Gandhi together with his title usually discovering point out within the latter’s speeches, Ashu was included in Punjab cupboard as meals and civil provides minister throughout the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress authorities in 2018. Later, he was among the many few ministers who was retained within the cupboard of former CM Charanjit Singh Channi, who took the cost after the ouster of Amarinder Singh.
Within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, nonetheless, the celebration most popular to wager on Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, not Ashu, as candidate from Ludhiana after then sitting Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu shifted to the BJP. Warring gained from Ludhiana.
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Higher often known as “Pandit ji” in Ludhiana West, an city constituency with Hindu and Sikh voters, Ashu started his political profession as a Congress councilor from Ludhiana in 1997. A 3-time councilor (1997, 2002 and 2007) and two-time MLA (2012 and 2017), he belongs to a enterprise household that owns dairy farms.
Ashu grew near Rahul Gandhi after getting in contact with senior Congress chief Kishori Lal and was ultimately given a ticket from Ludhiana West in 2012. Ashu gained defeating BJP candidate Rajinder Bhandari, regardless of the SAD-BJP mix managing to comb to energy in Punjab.
His spouse Mamta Ashu can be an area councillor and remained energetic within the constituency when Ashu was imprisoned not too long ago.
