A day after quitting the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), senior politician from the Gidderbaha assembly segment Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon on Monday said he is open to joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to contest the upcoming bypoll from his home turf. After a meeting with his supporters, Dhillon told reporters in Gidderbaha of Muktsar district that his associates took a unanimous decision to join the ruling party in the larger interest of the constituency that is “struggling” for development.
The announcement of Dhillon, once a close aide of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, on his next political plan came when Sukhbir publicly appealed to him on Monday to rejoin the party. Sukhbir said he would wait for 10 days to get a reply from Dhillon before taking any decision for Gidderbaha.
Dhillon said the final decision of joining AAP would be taken after meeting chief minister Bhagwant Mann. “I am definitely keen to contest the byelections. This is the reason I am considering joining AAP. A few leaders from the ruling dispensation are mediating and they have offered to fix a meeting with the CM soon. I have demands for the constituency and if I am assured of development funds for Gidderbaha, I will take a decision accordingly,” said Dhillon.
A transporter and politician, Dhillon has unsuccessfully contested from the politically significant seat of Gidderbaha for two consecutive times since 2017 on the SAD ticket. The Gidderbaha seat fell vacant after state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring quit as an MLA after being elected from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat.
Though the byelection to Gidderbaha has not been announced by the Election Commission, Dhillon had been campaigning in the area for the last several days along with SAD president Sukhbir.
In the 2022 assembly polls, Dhillon lost by a margin of 1,349 votes in a neck-and-neck contest while AAP candidate Pritpal Sharma had finished third by securing 27% votes polled that was almost 8% less than Dhillon.
Addressing a gathering in the assembly constituency, Dhillon said he would not consider rejoining the SAD he has worked with for 38 years. Dhillon again reiterated that Sukhbir kept him in the dark about his future from Gidderbaha and he sensed that Sukhbir was secretly supporting former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal from the segment and might even field him in the byelection.
“A senior supporter told me that I would be finished by these brothers (referring to Sukhbir and cousin Manpreet, who is in the BJP) politically if I rejoin,” he added.
Sukhbir strongly refuted that the party had any plan to field Manpreet and termed it “false, fabricated and baseless rumours”. “I want to make it clear that there was no doubt in my mind about Hardeep Dhillon’s candidature from Gidderbaha in the upcoming by-elections. We will wait for the estranged leader to give his final answer. Any decision on the party’s candidate will be taken after detailed consultations with the party cadre of the constituency,” Sukhbir told party workers, who met him in Badal village.
Embed BOX: BJP is my home, now and forever: Manpreet on Dhillon’s remarks
“The traditional Akali Dal vote bank in Gidderbaha and other places in Punjab is steadily shifting towards the BJP, and this has clearly rattled Dimpy Dhillon,” Manpreet said in a press statement.
“I am a BJP worker, and the BJP is my home, now and forever; I will faithfully follow the party’s instructions and work tirelessly towards strengthening the party. Let no one have any doubts that the BJP is the present and future of our country, and of Punjab,” Manpreet added.
“This is an excuse by Dimpy Dhillon to justify and cover his clandestine attempts to defect to the Aam Aadmi Party. Every child in Gidderbaha knows that he has been prostrating before the AAP for a few months now, and he was looking for an excuse to leave the Akali Dal and justify his attempts to join AAP,” Manpreet added. HTC
