Raman Arora with a supporter during a function in Jalandhar. Express (1)A graduate, Raman Arora is a cloth merchant in Jalandhar’s Peer Bodla bazaar. He has no political background except that he was appointed the vice -president of Khatri-Arora Punjab Board in the previous Congress Government after his social work during COVID attracted the attention of many.
He decided to contest elections after he came in contact with Kejriwal when he visited Jalandhar in december 2021, and heard him sing at a ‘jagran’.
He contested his maiden elections in February 2022 Punjab and won the coveted jalandhar Central seat by a wafer thin margin of 247 votes by defeating sitting Congress MLA Rajinder Beri.
His son and daughter are marrried while his wife is a homemaker.
A day in life: Arora meets the people of his constituency for three to four hours every day and then moves around his constituency wherever he is required to go.
Work accomplished: Arora says he has brought the first super suction machine in the state to his constituency. A large chunk of Jalandhar Central constituency falls in Jalandhar city where blocking of sewers is a frequent problem because of the grossly inadequate sewer system, which was laid long back and can no longer take the load of increasing population. Come rains, and it gets blocked very now and then.
Work in progress: Arora says he is turning his attention to building a flyover on the railway lines near Laddewali. This will resove the long-standing issue of traffic jams in the area.
Challenges: Arora faces the problem of overflowing sewer lines and damaged manholes in the posh Surya Enclave locality of Jalandhar where a big lake of sewer water spread over several acres in the middle of four localities carved out by Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) has become a curse for the locals. Arora says work to solve this problem will start soon. This sullage pond, which is visible even on the satellite image on Google Earth, is surrounded by huge garbage dumps and is a big blot on the face of “smart city” Jalandhar.
Controversies: Arora is one of the legislators allegedly approached by the saffron party under what AAP calls Operation Lotus. Arora alleged that he received calls from some functionary of BJP offering him a sum of Rs. 25 crore to join the party.