Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhadwant Mann on Sunday announced that Jagbir Singh Brar, senior Akali Dal MLA from Jalandhar Cantt joined the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ahead of Jalandhar by-election. The date for the bypoll is yet to be announced. Taking to Twitter, AAP general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat wrote, "Aam Aadmi Party got a big boost when former MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment and 2022 candidate Jagbir Singh Brar bid farewell to Akali Dal along with his colleagues and joined AAP in presence of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Bhagwant Mann."
The development comes in the run-up to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-poll necessitated by the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary (76) in January. The by-poll will be a litmus test for the ruling AAP which had last year lost the Sangrur Lok Sabha by-poll after coming to power in Punjab. AAP insiders indicated that the party may announce Brar as a candidate for the Jalandhar Assembly elections as he has been an MLA from Congress and Akali Dal.
Mann and his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and several AAP leaders including AAP MLA Sheetal Angural paid obeisance at Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Jalandhar and sought blessings from Dera Sachkhand Ballan chief Sant Niranjan Dass.
Brar is an influential leader in Jalandhar and his joining the AAP has strengthened the party in the upcoming by-poll, Barsat said in a statement. Brar was first elected from the Jalandhar Cantonment seat in 2007 on a SAD ticket. He later joined the People's Party of Punjab, floated by Manpreet Singh Badal. Thereafter, he switched over to the Congress but was defeated in the 2012 assembly polls by Pargat Singh, who contested from the Jalandhar Cantonment seat on a SAD ticket.
Ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls, Brar quit the Congress and returned to the Shiromani Akali Dal. Jagbir unsuccessfully contested the 2022 Assembly polls from the Jalandhar Cantonment seatA
