Like father, like son: AAP’s Chabbewal MLA first followed dad in medicine, now joins him in politics

Securing a comfortable victory in the Chabbewal Assembly byelection in Punjab, Dr Ishank Kumar has truly followed in the footsteps of his father, Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal.

Not only did Ishank opt for a career in medicine like the Chabbewal Senior--both are MD in radiology--he now joins his father in politics, representing the Assembly seat that Dr Raj Kumar had been occupying since 2017 and vacated after wining the recent Lok Sabha poll.

Dr Ishank has won by 28,690 votes in the bypoll result declared on Saturday, becoming the second youngest MLA in the present Punjab Vidhan Sabha. He is followed by Congress' Ranjit Kumar with 23,214 votes while BJP's Sohan Singh Thandal trailed at 8,692 votes.

"While I joined politics at the age of 45, my son has made the mark much earlier at just 31. He had just returned from Chennai after completing his MD and had not even joined the scanning centres that I am running in Punjab when he got the MLA's ticket. He didn’t have to be trained in politics as he had seen me in all my elections. While earlier he used to help me around, this time he was in the front and I was providing him the support," said an elated Dr Raj Kumar.

The MP-father had been maintaining that by electing Dr Ishank, Chabbewal residents would get the “double engine” needed for development of the area. "My younger son is settled in the US. Somehow, he could never join me in my elections the way Ishu (as he lovingly calls Ishank) used to. Since my wife is a government doctor in Hoshiarpur, she too could not provide me the support needed for elections,” he said.

While Dr Ishank is unmarried, his younger brother has tied the know. Asked about Dr Ishank’s wedding plans, Dr Raj Kumar jokingly said "AAP was a good platform for marriages and he too should be able to find his soulmate now".