INDIA VOTES 2024: Six SAD leaders join AAP

Patiala, May 2

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) claimed to have gotten a major boost in Patiala ahead of the General Election after almost six Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leaders joined the Aam Aadmi Party in the presence of CM Bhagwant Mann in Chandigarh.

SAD leaders from Patiala, including the national vice-president, Surjit Singh Ablowal, and Jaspal Singh Kalyan (SAD, District President of Patiala Rural’s SC wing), both considered close to former Cabinet Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, joined the AAP.

Bhagwant Mann welcomed the leaders into the AAP fold. Ablowal has been part of the SAD for over two decades and has been actively involved in students’ politics during his college days.

Along with him, Jaspal Singh Kalyan (SAD, District President of Patiala Rural’s SC wing) and two SAD ex-councillors, Kamaljeet Singh (SAD) and Ravinder Pal Singh Johny Kohli also joined the AAP. Apart from them, Baldev Singh Bathoi (Chairman Block Samiti Sanour), Manbir Singh Virk and Shivraj Singh Virk (National senior vice-president of the Youth Akali Dal) also left Akali Dal to join the AAP.

After inducting the new recruits into the party, CM Mann said, impressed by the work of the AAP government in two years, people from every section of Punjab were continuously joining the Aam Aadmi Party and were contributing to making Punjab Rangla again.

He said there was an atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity in the Akali leadership. Mann said the people of Punjab or the Akali Dal workers do not have any trust in SAD-Badal. When “there is uncertainty and distrust among the people of any party, they cannot win. Now the people of Punjab do not have faith in the Akali Dal, they are finished. But now the people only look towards the AAP, and the party will create history by winning the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab by 13-0,” he stated.