Ludhiana, June 24 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday retained the Ludhiana West assembly seat, with its candidate and Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora defeating former state minister and Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu by 10,637 votes. Arora secured 35,179 votes while Ashu won 24,542 votes followed by Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Jiwan Gupta and Shiromani Akali Dal's (SAD) Parupkar Singh Ghuman getting 20,323 votes and 8,203, respectively. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of AAP legislator Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January 2025. With this, the ruling AAP has 94 seats in the 117-member assembly, followed by Congress (16) with Shiromani Akali Dal (3), Bharatiya Janata party (2), Bahujan Samaj Party (1) and one Independent. "I express my heartfelt gratitude to all the residents of Ludhiana West. I promise you that I will fully live up to the trust you have placed in me," Arora said in a post on X after the results were announced. "On this occasion, I also express my deep gratitude to the national convener of Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal Ji and the honourable chief minister, Bhagwant Mann Ji, who gave me the opportunity to perform this service." The bypoll recorded a turnout of 51.33% - a fall from 64.29% in 2022, and far lower than the seat's highest ever turnout of 69.66% in 2012. With Arora winning the bypoll, the AAP leader is set to vacate his Rajya Sabha seat. During campaigning, opposition parties alleged that the AAP had fielded Arora for the bypoll, paving the way for party convener Arvind Kejriwal to take his place in the Upper House. The former Delhi chief minister, seeking re-election for the fourth time, had lost from the New Delhi assembly seat in the 2025 assembly elections. WHAT IT MEANS FOR PARTIES, P2...