Days after replacing him as its candidate for Talwandi Sabo Assembly by-election, the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab on Wednesday expelled renowned singer Balkar Sidhu for “anti-party activities”.
Besides Sidhu, the party has also shown the door to Sandeep Handa, a close aide of party’s Faridkot MP Sadhu Singh for accompanying Sidhu when he was filing his nomination papers against the party’s official candidate.
Sidhu, who was AAP’s first choice to field as its candidate from Talwandi Sabo assembly constituency, was left red-faced after his name was withdrawn by the party following allegation of human trafficking against him.
He was replaced by Baljinder Kaur, known as a “very hard working worker” of the party and serving as a lecturer at Fatehgarh Sahib.Peeved, Sidhu went on to file his nomination papers as an “independent”.
As August 6 was the last day to withdraw the nominations, no amount of persuasion worked and Sidhu went ahead with his decision to contest polls as an independent against AAP’s official candidate.
AAP’s disciplinary committee, irate over Sidhu’s move, decided to expel him from party’s membership, and all other posts held by him and Handa, who was Faridkot in-charge in State-level ad-hoc organizing committee of AAP.
40-year-old Balkar Sidhu became active in AAP after the party won four seats in parliamentary elections and joined the party in May this year. He had also campaigned for AAP candidates in Punjab during lok Sabha polls.
Other than AAP’s Baljinder Kaur, Sidhu would now face SAD’s Jeet Mohinder Sidhu, and Congress’ Harminder Singh Jassi.
15 IN FRAY FOR PATIAlA, TAlWANDI SABO BY-ElECTION
As no candidate withdrew his or her nomination papers on the last day for withdrawal of candidature, 15 candidates are in fray for byelections to the Patiala and Talwandi Sabo assembly segments.
Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) VK Singh said that no report has been received from Patiala and Talwandi Sabo assembly constituencies regarding withdrawal of nomination papers by any of the candidate.
SUKHBIR:isolate NON-PERFORMERS
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday asked the people to
distinguish between the leaders like Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Union Minister Harsimrat Badal who were working round-the-clock for you, and Congress leaders like Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa “who are not only known for their non performance but also their inaccessibility and arrogant behaviour”.
“Chief Minister has a special relationship with people of Bathinda constituency and has done his utmost for development of this region unlike Congress leaders who are known for their non-performance only,” said
Sukhbir while addressing public meetings in favour of SAD-BJP candidate Jeet Mohinder Sidhu. He said that Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur was also working for welfare of the region on daily basis by coordinating with various Central
Ministries to get maximum schemes to the parliamentary constituency, and added that SAD candidate Jeet Mohinder was also an able worker and leader and could be an effective voice in the State Vidhan Sabha.