With the Ludhiana West by-election heating up, the Punjab Congress has come together to support its candidate, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, after he was summoned by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in a case related to alleged misuse of school land.
Earlier, Ashu had accused senior party leaders — Punjab Congress President Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa — of not standing by him when he was previously arrested in a Rs 2,000-crore foodgrain scam. However, the Punjab and Haryana High Court later cancelled the FIRs against him.
Now, under directions from the Congress central leadership, both Warring and Bajwa are openly backing Ashu. Bajwa strongly criticized the AAP government, accusing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of using government agencies to target Ashu during the campaign. He said the summons were not about justice but a political tactic to distract and damage Congress right before polling.
Interestingly, when the strategy caused public backlash, the Vigilance Bureau officer who had issued the summons — SSP Jagatpreet Singh — was suddenly suspended. The Mann government claimed the officer was actually helping Ashu create a sympathy wave.
Former minister Vijay Inder Singla called the entire episode a sign of AAP’s nervousness and desperation, predicting a big win for Congress in the bypoll — a moment he described as the party’s comeback.
Raja Warring also questioned the timing of the summons. “Why couldn’t the Vigilance Bureau wait until after the election?” he asked. He said this raises serious concerns about the misuse of police powers and called for major reforms to hold officials accountable.
The Congress leadership is now portraying the incident as proof that AAP is losing its grip, while Congress is preparing for a strong revival in Punjab politics.
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