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Punjab: SAD turncoat, MP’s doctor son among AAP candidates for bypolls
Dimpy Dhillon, Ishank, Gurdeep Randhawa and Harinder Dhaliwal fielded from Gidderbaha, Chabbewal, Dera Baba Nanak and Barnala
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday took the lead over its rivals by announcing its candidates for the crucial byelections in four assembly constituencies in Punjab, scheduled for November 13.
The ruling party named Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who switched over from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) two months ago, as its candidate from the Gidderbaha constituency; Dr Ishank Chabbewal (radiologist), son of Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, from Chabbewal; Gurdeep Singh Randhawa, the party’s assembly constituency in-charge, from Dera Baba Nanak; and Harinder Singh Dhaliwal, a close confidant of Sangrur MP and ex-MLA Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, from Barnala.
The bypolls are a midterm test of chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s popularity and offer the ruling party a chance to reassert its dominance after its underwhelming performance in the recent parliamentary polls. Despite its leaders’ lofty claims of a “clean sweep,” the party won just three of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab. A tough battle lies ahead as three of these seats – Dera Baba Nanak, Gidderbaha, and Chabbewal – were won by the Congress in the state assembly elections in 2022, while the fourth, Barnala, was held by the AAP.
Though the opposition Congress, SAD and the BJP have made known their intentions to go all-out in the upcoming polls, they have yet to name their candidates. The last date for filing nomination papers is October 25.
The byelections to these four assembly seats have been necessitated by the resignations of sitting legislators who either got elected to Lok Sabha in the April-May general elections or switched parties. AAP leader Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, who was a cabinet minister in the current government and a two-time MLA from Barnala, resigned from the state assembly after being elected from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.
The Gidderbaha seat was vacated by Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who won the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat, while former deputy CM Randhawa, Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Gurdaspur. Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, who was the Congress MLA from Chabbewal, had resigned from the state assembly after joining the AAP in March this year. He later went on to win the Hoshiarpur parliamentary seat as the AAP nominee.
Among the AAP candidates, Dimpy Dhillon, a former close aide of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, joined the AAP on August 28 this year after unsuccessfully contesting the assembly elections from Gidderbaha twice as the SAD nominee. He was inducted into the party by Mann.
The candidature of Dhaliwal, who has been nominated from Barnala, was pushed by Meet Hayer. The two studied together and are close friends. Dhaliwal’s nomination has caused some resentment within a section of the party’s district unit. In Chabbewal, aside from Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal’s son, his brother, Dr Jatinder Kumar, who was recently elected as the sarpanch of Manjhi village, was also vying for the party ticket.
In Dera Baba Nanak, the AAP has once again placed its bet on Gurdeep Randhawa, who had also contested the 2022 assembly election, securing 22% of the votes and finishing third behind Congress’ Sukhjinder Randhawa and SAD’s Ravikaran Kahlon. The counting of votes will be done on November 23.
