Amid speculations that AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal is going to enter the parliament, the party on Wednesday named its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora as the candidate for bye-election in the Ludhiana West assembly constituency. The announcement has almost confirmed that Arvind Kejriwal will become a member of the upper house of the parliament after his recent defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.
The announcement, made on Wednesday by AAP Punjab via its official X account, comes just weeks after Kejriwal lost his New Delhi Assembly seat to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Parvesh Verma by over 4,000 votes in the February 2025 Delhi polls. The defeat marked a significant setback for Kejriwal, who had been Delhi’s Chief Minister for a decade before the BJP swept the Assembly elections, ending AAP’s decade-long rule in the capital.
ਆਮ ਆਦਮੀ ਪਾਰਟੀ ਨੇ ਲੁਧਿਆਣਾ ਪੱਛਮੀ ਉੱਪ ਚੋਣ ਲਈ ਸ਼੍ਰੀ ਸੰਜੀਵ ਅਰੋੜਾ ਨੂੰ ਉਮੀਦਵਾਰ ਐਲਾਨਿਆ। pic.twitter.com/dykgIbWe9Z
— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab) February 26, 2025
Bye-election for Ludhiana West seat is being held because of the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi last month in an accidental firing while cleaning his pistol. Now, AAP has decided to field Arora, a 61-year-old business tycoon and philanthropist known for his Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. Arora is a Ludhiana native and Rajya Sabha member since 2022, and his term is set to expire in 2028. But he will have to resign to contest the assembly election.
Notably, AAP has been denying that Arvind Kejriwal will enter the parliament through Rajya Sabha route after the defeat in the assembly polls. But the nomination of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora for assembly bye-election has almost confirmed that the speculations were right.
