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AAP’s Jagdeep Singh quits, may contest on SAD ticket from Hari Nagar
New Delhi
New Delhi
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Hari Nagar, Jagdeep Singh, on Saturday resigned from the party —days after being denied a ticket for the Delhi assembly elections on February 8.
Singh is likely to join Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and may seek re-election from Hari Nagar, leaders in the SAD said.
“I was unhappy that the AAP chose to give a ticket to a turncoat (Rajkumari Dhillon), who joined the party from Congress just a day before ticket distribution. They overlooked their own party worker and my hard work in the constituency. Instead they decided to bring in people from the Congress, leaders of which had been involved in anti-Sikh riots,” Singh said.
When asked about him possibly joining the SAD, Singh said, “Talks are going on. I have to serve the people of Hari Nagar with honest intension. So I will join whatever organisation that lets me do so.”
The AAP has dropped 15 of its current MLAs for the February 8 assembly election. So far, four out of 15 MLAs have resigned from the party. These include Singh, MLA from Dwarka Adarsh Shashtri, Badarpur MLA ND Sharma and Kalkaji legislator Avtar Singh Kalka.
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ally SAD will contest from four seats — Rajouri Garden, Kalkaji, Shahdara and Hari Nagar —in the Delhi assembly elections scheduled on February 8. These assembly segments consist a sizeable number of Sikhs and Punjabis.
According to senior party leaders, the SAD leadership has zeroed in on the candidature from three seats but they are yet to pick a name for Hari Nagar.
A senior SAD leader, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The top leadership of the party has decided that sitting MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa will contest from Rajouri Garden, Harmeet Singh Kalka may contest from Kalkaji seat while former MLA Jitender Singh Shunty may contest from Shahdara. The name of Jagdeep Singh is also being discussed for Hari Nagar, along with three other party leaders.”
Kalka is SAD’s Delhi unit chief and had won the 2013 election before losing in the 2015 polls. Shunty had also won the 2013 election. Current MLA from Rajouri Garden, Sirsa, confirmed the developments. He said that some names have been shortlisted and a formal announcement would be made soon.
“A meeting was held on Saturday where names were shortlisted for the three seats, while discussion on the name of the candidate for Hari Nagar seat is still on,” he said.
Sirsa had won the 2013 assembly poll but had lost the 2015 election to AAP’s Jarnail Singh. He won the seat in a bypoll in 2017.
