Ex-SAD leader joins AAP, may be fielded for Tarn Taran Assembly poll

Former SAD leader and three-time MLA Harmit Singh Sandhu joining the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has changed the political scenario in Tarn Taran Vidhan Sabha constituency. It has come as a big blow even to those leaders of the ruling AAP who were launching scathing personal, political and allegedly derogatory attacks against him (Sandhu) for the last few days. These AAP leaders were claiming to be the only choice for the party for the Tarn Taran Assembly bypoll, necessitated by the death of Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal, the sitting Tarn Taran MLA.

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A mature and seasoned leader of the masses, Harmit Singh Sandhu entered active politics during the period 1997-2002 when there was SAD-BJP government in state led by Parkash Singh Badal. But in the 2002 election, he was denied the SAD ticket from Tarn Taran and entered the poll fray as an independent candidate and won the election. Captain Amarinder Singh of the Congress formed the government and he built pressure on Harmit Singh Sandhu to join the Congress party which he rejected in spite of repeated ‘threats’ from the administration.

Ignoring the pressure, Harmit Singh Sandhu preferred to join SAD even though Captain Amarinder’s government registered cases against senior SAD leaders. It proved to be a positive point for Harmit Sandhu who came to be in the good books of the Badal family. He won the next two elections in 2007 and 2012. Though he lost the elections in 2017 and 2022, he managed to keep his mass base intact despite all odds. It is because of this that Harmit Singh Sandhu has become the first choice of the AAP leadership with the Tarn Taran by-election expected any time.