Raikot legislator Hakam Singh Thekedar keen on ramping up infra

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, April 12

AAP leader Hakam Singh Thekedar wrested control of the Raikot segment, which had remained the bastion of the Congress and the SAD for a long time, in the recent Assembly elections.

Asserting people have voted for change, the newly elected MLA says: “We will replicate the AAP’s Delhi model of governance in Punjab to make it power surplus and ensure never-seen-before education and health facilities and welfare of all, especially women.”

An intermediate, Thekedar says people were fed up with traditional parties, which are responsible for all ills prevailing in society. He stresses: “Eradicating the rampant drug menace and ensuring infrastructure development will remain my top priorities.”

Thekedar, 66, left the Congress in May last year after serving it for over three decades to join the AAP. Ahead of the February 20 Assembly elections, he replaced AAP’s sitting MLA Jagtar Singh Jagga Hissowal, who quit to join the Congress, as party candidate from Raikot.

A labour contractor by profession with his wife Jaspal Kaur running transport and logistic services, Thekedar remained Ludhiana District Congress president, state unit secretary, and vice-president of the Raikot Municipal Council, before switching over to the AAP. He could not succeed in securing Congress ticket from Raikot in 2012 and 2017.

The AAP nominee polled 63,659 votes, which accounted for 56.04 per cent of the total polled votes, the Congress candidate got 36,015 votes, constituting 31.7 per cent vote share.

Except another new face of the Congress Kamil Amar Singh, son of Fatehgarh Sahib Congress MP DR Amar Singh, all other eight nominees in the poll fray lost their security deposits by failing to get even the minimum required 16.67 per cent vote share.

Will usher in change

People voted for change and it will be visible soon. Our party will make the state power surplus and ensure never-seen-before education and health facilities and welfare of all, especially women. — Hakam Singh Thekedar, Raikot MLA