Chandigarh, Nov 2 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab received a significant boost for the Chabbewal Assembly bypoll with Kulwinder Singh Rasulpuri, the constituency in-charge for the Congress, and Gurpreet Singh, the grandson of former MLA Chaudhary Ram Charan, on Saturday joined AAP.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann along with Hoshiarpur MP Rajkumar Chabbewal formally welcomed both leaders into the party.
Kulwinder Singh Rasulpuri had been associated with the Congress party for 35 years. He was promised a ticket by the Congress for the by-election after Rajkumar Chabbewal left the party, but the Congress didn’t fulfill its promise.
Disappointed, he left the Congress to join the AAP. He served as the Vice-President of the Punjab Congress trading cell and as Vice-president of the District Congress Committee of Hoshiarpur. He was also the president of the Sarpanch Union in the Mahilpur block for 20 years.
Gurpreet Singh was running as an Independent candidate in this by-election. He is an influential and respected figure in the area. His grandfather, Chaudhary Ram Ratan, served as an MLA from Chabbewal from 1962 to 1967.
On this occasion, Chief Minister Mann said the inclusion of both leaders will strengthen AAP not just in Chabbewal, but throughout Hoshiarpur. He asserted that they would work together for the development of Chabbewal and claimed they would win the election by a huge margin.
Punjab’s four Assembly seats — three represented by the Congress and one by AAP — fell vacant after MLAs from these constituencies were elected to the Lok Sabha this year. The bypoll is scheduled on November 13.
Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the Congress legislator from Gidderbaha, was elected from the Ludhiana Parliamentary seat, while Raj Kumar Chabbewal, a Congress MLA who later switched loyalties to AAP, became MP from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.
Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who was a Congress legislator from the Dera Baba Nanak seat, got elected from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat, while Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, the AAP legislator from Barnala, was elected as MP from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. said the total number of voters in the four constituencies is 6,96,316, with a total of 831 polling stations.
For Dera Baba Nanak, there are 1,93,268 voters and 241 polling stations. In Chabbewal, the number of voters is 1,59,254, with 205 polling stations.
For Gidderbaha, the total number of voters is 1,66,489, and 173 polling stations will be established. The Barnala Assembly seat has 1,77,305 voters and 212 polling stations.
–IANS
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