Joining AAP just 4 days ago pays Uppal dividend

Rampal Uppal, who was elected second Mayor of the Phagwara Municipal Corporation on Saturday, had switched over to the Aam Aadmi Party just four days ago.

He had got elected as the Congress councillor from Ward No. 18 in the December 21 MC poll. He was with the Congress during the first mayoral poll held on January 25 and had switched to the ruling party on January 28. The move paid him well with AAP rewarding him with the top post ignoring its own 12 councillors who got elected on the symbol ‘broom’.

Uppal had won MC elections even in 2008 and 2015. It was his third victory for the MC this time. An industrialist from Phagwara, he is running motor spare parts factory. He was a Congress loyalist but in the tussle with Sanjeev Bugga to get the mayoral post in the party, he quit it. Two other councillors Padam Dev Sudhir and Munish Parbhakar had also quit with him on January 28 and joined AAP through Lok Sabha MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal and AAP halka in-charge Joginder Singh Maan and AAP state spokesman Harji Maan. While Parbhakar rejoined the Congress yesterday, Uppal and Sudhir had stayed back.

Talking to media after his victory, Uppal said, “I only want to serve my people who have given me this opportunity. I want to make Phagwara clean and pollution-free city. I will prioritise working on sanitation, sewerage and streetlight facilities in the first phase”.