The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday named Rajya Sabha MP Sanjiv Arora as its candidate for the Ludhiana West assembly bypoll in Punjab. The date for the bypoll has not yet been announced.
Arora has been a member of the upper house since 2022. The Ludhiana West seat fell vacant after AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi's death. Gogi died at his home due to a gunshot injury after his licensed weapon accidently discharged.
With this, the speculation around AAP supremo and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's entry into the Rajya Sabha has intensified. AAP leader Neel Garg, however, was quick to deny the reports and blame the Opposition for spreading rumours.
Garg said that Arora was given a ticket because of his "good work".
"Speculations that Kejriwal will go to Rajya Sabha are untrue and out of the BJP factory. We will first focus on the bypoll and then Rajya Sabha. Congress and the Opposition are spreading rumours. I turn down the theory regarding Kejriwal as rumours."
There have been doubts over Kejriwal's political future ever since the AAP lost Delhi -- its citadel for 10 years from 2015 to 2025.
In the Delhi elections 2025, the BJP sprung a massive surprise as it won 48 out of the total 70 assembly seats in the national capital. The AAP, on the other hand, was reduced from 62 seats in 2020 to 22 seats in 2025.
AAP's defeat in the national capital was so humiliating that the party's stalwarts including Kejriwal lost from their respective seats. Arvind Kejriwal lost to BJP's Parvesh Verma in the New Delhi assembly seat by a margin of 4,089 votes.
Senior leaders such as Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Somnath Bharti, and Saurabh Bharadwaj also lost from Jangpura, Shakur Basti, Malviya Nagar, and Greater Kailash, respectively.
Only Atishi and Gopal Rai were able to win from their respective seats. Atishi won from the Kalkaji assembly seat by a margin of 3,521 votes whereas Gopal Rai clinched victory from the Babarpur seat by a margin of 18,994 votes.
Ever since the AAP lost Delhi, it has shifted its focus towards Punjab. Assembly elections in Punjab are scheduled to be held in 2027.
In the 2022 assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP secured a whopping 92 out of the total 117 seats, bagging a vote share of 42.01 per cent.
The Congress, on the other hand, bagged 18 seats. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could win only 3 seats whereas the BJP won on 2 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and independents bagged one seat each.
The Congress secured a vote share of 22.98 per cent whereas the SAD bagged a total vote share of 18.38 per cent. While the BJP secured a vote share of 6.60 per cent, the BSP won a vote share of 1.77 per cent.
(With PTI inputs)