Chandigarh: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Congress suffered yet another blow in Punjab after MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday. This comes within a week after the former Congress MLA from Bassi Pathana, Gurpreet Singh GP joined AAP.
Prior to joining the AAP, Chabbewal resigned from Congress and the Legislative Assembly. Chabbewal, a Dalit leader has a strong vote bank in his favour. In 2015, the Congress had appointed him as the chairman of the Punjab Scheduled Caste Commission.
The AAP's Punjab unit welcomed Chabbewal saying the current MLA from Chabbewal constituency of Hoshiarpur district has joined AAP after being impressed by the pro-people policies of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann.
It is being speculated that AAP will field Chhabewal from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat. He has been elected as an MLA twice on Congress ticket. Earlier, in 2019, he contested from Hoshiarpur but was defeated by BJP's Som Prakash.
Ten days ago, he had gone to the Assembly and said that he came to relieve the burden of debt from the Punjab government. The government had promised to reduce the debt but the debt has increased, he had said.
Chhabewal is the third Congress leader to join AAP before the Lok Sabha elections. Prior to Gurpreet Singh GP, MP Praneet Kaur had quit Congress. Gurpreet Singh GP has already been announced as a candidate from Fatehgarh Sahib.
Chabbewal was the deputy Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly. He joined Congress in 2009. In 2017, he got Congress ticket for the first time and won from Hoshiarpur. Then, in 2022 Assembly elections he defeated AAP candidate Harminder Singh Sandhu by 7646 votes.
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