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Ex-Dhuri MLA Goldy parts ways with AAP
Goldy had left the Congress and joined the AAP on May 1 this year after the party denied him a ticket, choosing instead to field Sukhpal Khaira from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.
In a setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, former Dhuri MLA Dalvir Singh Goldy parted ways with the party on Tuesday.
Goldy, who had joined the AAP during the Lok Sabha election, said that he is currently not in any political party. “Though I have not submitted my resignation or informed anyone in the AAP, I am very clear that I not in any party right now,” he told HT. Goldy had left the Congress and joined the AAP on May 1 this year after the party denied him a ticket, choosing instead to field Sukhpal Khaira from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.
The former MLA was inducted into the AAP by chief minister Bhagwant Mann. At the time, there was speculation that Goldy might be fielded from Barnala if sitting MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer won from the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency and vacated his assembly seat. Asked if the AAP’s move to give the party ticket to a close confidant of Hayer prompted him to leave the party, Goldy said that he was not interested in contesting from Barnala. “My issue with the Congress was that they ignored me and fielded someone from outside (from Sangrur in the April-May Lok Sabha poll). How could I have done the same to AAP leaders in Barnala? I will contest from Dhuri in 2027,” he said.
Goldy, who started as a student union leader, was elected president of the Panjab University Students’ Council in 2006. He won the Dhuri assembly seat in 2017, but then lost the seat to Bhagwant Mann, a two-time MP from Sangrur, in 2022 by 58,206 votes. When Mann quit his Sangrur seat on getting elected to the Punjab assembly and becoming the chief minister, the Congress had named Goldy the party candidate for the June 2022 by-election. He finished third behind Simranjit Singh Mann of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) and Gurmail Singh of AAP.
