Former SAD CPS Pawan Tinu, who joined AAP today, remains prominent Dalit face from Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, April 14

Former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) CPS Pawan Kumar Tinu (57), who joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday, has remained a prominent Dalit face of the party from Jalandhar.

Tinu was often known to take up issues related post-matriculation scholarship for SCs and the atrocities on the weaker section.

Recently, 21 Dalit men had died in Sangrur after taking spurious liquor. Tinu had raked up the issue and had even hit out against the AAP leadership for not taking responsibility for the deaths.

He had started his political career with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) when he used to contest from Jalandhar South (now called Jalandhar West).

Tinu had contested as its Lok Sabha candidate in 2004, bagging 1.58 lakh votes but had soon fallen out with supremo Mayawati. He left the party in 2005 to join SAD.

Tinu was elected MLA from the Adampur assembly constituency in Jalandhar in 2012 and 2017. He lost the 2022 assembly polls to Congress nominee Sukhwinder Kotli.

Tinu had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election against Santokh Singh Chaudhary but lost to him with a margin of about 71,000 votes.

Of late, he was feeling sidelined in the party, especially since SAD had chosen Banga MLA Sukhwinder Sukhi over him in 2023 Lok Sabha polls, upon pressure from the BSP, which the alliance partner with SAD then.

Since SAD is fighting a solo contest, Tinu was not hopeful of any results even if fielded by the party.

SAD had lost ground completely in the four urban segments of Jalandhar in the last two years. All its councillors had already left the party to join the AAP or BJP.

Along with Tinu, Gurcharan Singh Channi, who was formerly the party's strategist, Chairman of the District Planning Committee and District President (urban), also joined AAP. Channi had quit SAD in 2016 but had rejoined recently. However, he did not get the space he had been expecting again.

After Tinu's exit, SAD is left with few options to choose from. Among its probables are Sukhi, former Phillaur MLA Baldev Khera and ex-minister Sarwan S Phillaur.

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