Disintegrating with little patience, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab on Sunday made attempts to rebuild its state unit by appointing a young Sikh face, Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi, as its convener. At the same time, party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal declared that he would be overseeing the Punjab party affairs from next week.
Party’s political affairs committee (PAC), which met in Delhi on Sunday, cleared comedian-actor-turned-politician Ghuggi’s name as Punjab unit convener replacing the ousted Sucha Singh Chhotepur allegedly over corruption charges.
The State unit headed for a vertical split after Chhotepur’s ouster with his supporters warning the party high command of parting ways in case he was not reinstated and the party’s “outsider” leaders were not asked to leave Punjab and giving control to state leaders.
Even as the party made attempts to mend ways with Chhotepur, the ousted leader denied any reconciliation. Backed by AAP’s six zonal heads, Chhotepur may join hands with the proposed front — Aawaz-e-Punjab — by former parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, Olympian Pargat Singh, and Bains brothers – Simarjit Bains and Balwinder Bains.
PAC’s decision came days after Chhotepur was sacked from the post after a sting video showed him allegedly accepting money from a party volunteer.
The official statement read that Ghuggi would take charge soon.
Ghuggi, known for his satires and comical roles in both Hindi and Punjabi movies, had joined AAP in February this year. He has also remained the brand ambassador of the Punjab Election Commission.
Though Kejriwal has taken everyone by surprise by elevating a non-politician and renowned comedian Ghuggi on the party’s apex post in Punjab, it is believed that the choice was made to project a Sikh leader as party face in Punjab ahead 2017 polls.
Moreover, Ghuggi is expected to appeal both youngsters and the old considering his popularity via movies and comedy shows.
The second stand-up comedian to join AAP after Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann, Ghuggi had started his career as an actor with small roles in Doordarshan serials and tele-films. But, his claim to fame was comedy-based reality show ‘The Great Indian laughter Challenge’ on national television.
Besides, Ghuggi has also acted in films like Namastey london and Humko Deewana Kar Gaye and Singh Is King with Akshay Kumar.
Emerging as a force to reckon with for past three months, the promising AAP in Punjab, it seems, is playing an already lost match with its players hitting self-goals — one after another. Its popularity has, in fact, forced the traditional political parties — the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress — to amend their strategies accordingly.
However, with the youth manifesto gaffe, Ashish Khetan’s statement to equate holy scriptures with manifesto, party MP Bhagwant Mann’s live streaming of Parliament’s security checks, followed by its state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur’s cash sting — the party continuously bogged down by its own leaders.
But, Chhotepur’s row followed by his outburst against the party leadership, coupled with more allegations of corruption against its national leaders, has apparently demolished party’s dreams of forming the next government in Punjab in 2017.
In fact, the accusations and cases against party’s MlAs and Ministers in Delhi is also giving enough fodder to its rival parties in Punjab.