India, June 23 -- Aam Aadmi Party candidate Sanjeev Arora was leading his nearest rival and Congress nominee Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 3,272 votes after the seventh round of counting from the Ludhiana West assembly seat in Punjab on Monday.

After seven rounds of counting, Arora had polled 17,358 votes and Ashu 14,086.

BJP candidate Jiwan Gupta slipped to the third spot with 11,839 votes and Shiromani Akali Dal nominee Parupkar Singh Ghuman was fourth with 3,705 votes.

There are 14 candidates in the fray.

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

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

A voter turnout of 51.33% ...