We believe in walking the talk: Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, May 21

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal is banking upon his party’s governance and commitments made to the people that were honoured since it assumed power in the state.

Starting his poll campaign with a nearly two-hour-long meeting with voters at his house in Jagdev Kalan village, he devotes the rest of his time to a segment chosen by his aides. With the help of party volunteers, he attends at least 10 rallies in that segment.

During his address in the rallies, he takes pains to familiarise the electorate with works done by his government, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He elaborated that poll promises like free of cost power supply up to 300 units, upgrade of education and health facilities, were delivered.

He categorically stated: “I do not talk about future vision as my party believes in delivering results.” For this, he said over 800 Mohalla clinics, including 70 in Amritsar, were set up. Schools of Eminence were established and 43,000 government jobs offered.

A diabetic, he does not forget to take along his medicines and food during campaigning. Salted lassi is his favourite to beat the heat.

His campaigning halts during the hot hours in the afternoon to avoid hassles to people. In the given constituency, his poll campaign winds up by 8 pm. Then he returns home to hold some more meetings at his residence. In addition, the AAP has pressed in 250 teams of volunteers who visit door to door to inform the voters about the promises on which their party has delivered after forming the government.

The AAP has chosen to field again its Minister for NRI Affairs Dhaliwal from Amritsar where he had lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, bagging just 20,087 votes, a mere 2.34 per cent of the total votes polled. Gurjeet Singh Aujla of the Congress had comfortably won the election, securing over 4.45 lakh votes. However, riding on the AAP wave, Dhaliwal had won the 2022 assembly election from Ajnala assembly seat.

In the early years of his political career, he was associated with the Congress. Before contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Dhaliwal reportedly gave up his American citizenship for contesting the election. At that time, Dhaliwal had claimed that he had promised party supremo Arvind Kejriwal way back in 2015 that he would make sacrifices for the party. After spending 13 years in the US, he returned home in 2014 to join active politics. Before moving to the US, Dhaliwal claimed that he was elected Sarpanch of Jagdev Kalan village. He had passed his matriculation from a government school in his village.