Dimpy Dhillon: From SAD loyalist to AAP candidate; here is Manpreet Badal’s role in political shift

Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, 56, was an Akali and a close aide of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal before he joined the AAP on August 28 this year.

He has unsuccessfully contested two Assembly elections on the SAD ticket against PCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring from Gidderbaha in 2017 and 2022.

During the SAD-BJP government (2012-17), he served as chairman of the District Planning Committee in Muktsar.

He is the co-owner of New Deep Transport.

In 1990s, when the Badals were facing a tough time, Dimpy's family provided some buses to Badals, which cemented their relationship.

However, their family bond of over three decades ended on August 25 this year, when Dimpy claimed that both Sukhbir Badal and his cousin, BJP leader and former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, had hobnobbed with each other and left the SAD.

Dimpy still publicly states that Sukhbir brought him into politics. Just two days before he left the SAD, both Sukhbir and Dimpy had jointly campaigned in Gidderbaha for the bypoll.