Lok Sabha poll: From Congress to AAP, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal may not find win a cakewalk

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, April 4

The Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who is also a cabinet minister, would have to answer some serious questions in this elections as most of his party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s guarantees like drug-free Punjab, resolution of farmers’ issues and Rs 1,000 per month for all women over 18 years of age remain unfulfilled. Also, there seems to be no perceptible undercurrent unlike in the 2022 state assembly elections.

Though AAP has already delivered on the promise of Rs 300 units of free electricity per household to the people, its promise regarding 24 hours of uninterrupted power supply seems to have been forgotten. The government has also opened only 829 Mohalla Clinics in Punjab against Kejriwal’s promise of 16,000 such clinics.

For a seasoned politician like Dhaliwal who started his career from Punjab Students Union, an ultra-left students organization, and later joined the Congress during Chief Minister Beant Singh’s government, it should not be much of a problem to evade such questions. Dhaliwal had moved abroad in the 1990s and was appointed president of the Congress Intellectual Cell when he returned three decades later. He, however joined AAP in January 2016.

The NRI Affairs Minister had also tried his luck in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but got only 20,087 votes. In 2022, he became an MLA from Ajnala constituency. After government formation, he was given important portfolios such as panchayat and rural development, agriculture and NRI affairs. However, in May 2023, he was stripped off his more important portfolios and is presently the NRI Affairs Minister.

Political observers feel that Dhaliwal is presently devoting more time to campaigning in his assembly segment Ajnala instead of the eight other segments. “Having already lost favour with the AAP leaders, it is more important that he wins from his assembly constituency even if he loses the Lok Sabha election. Losing in Ajnala segment would also threaten his candidature in the next assembly elections,” said a senior journalist.