Chandigarh: With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) coming to power in Punjab with a thumping majority, 82 new faces from the party will now join the legislative assembly. These 82 MLA-elects — among the party’s 92 winners in this year’s election — come from varied social and professional backgrounds.
Among them are two popular Punjabi singers, seven lawyers, a prominent Right to Information (RTI) activist, two former senior Punjab Police officers, a former civil servant, an Oxford graduate, and 12 doctors — including one who did his MBBS in Ukraine, where a Russian invasion has thrown the future of several Indian medical aspirants into the dark.
In his victory speech after the assembly poll results were announced Thursday, AAP convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal emphasised that this would be a government of the ‘aam aadmi (common people)’. To this end, he cited the example of one candidate, Labh Singh Ugoke — the son of a sanitation worker, who used to work at a mobile repair shop until recently.
Ugoke defeated former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in Bhadaur constituency.
The AAP won 92 seats in the 117-member assembly Thursday. Meanwhile, the Congress won 18 seats, while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) bagged 3 and the BJP, 2 seats. The BSP and an Independent won the remaining 2 seats.
The AAP is now the only non-Congress, non-BJP party to helm the government in more than one state. Of its 92 winners, 10 are incumbent MLAs while the rest are first-timers, according to party records.
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‘Wide mix of people will be an asset for AAP government’
Gurinder Singh, the AAP MLA-elect from Amloh, completed his MBA from the University of Oxford in 2014. “Having common people from different domains will be a major asset for the AAP government in Punjab. Having a wide mix of people from a range of areas contributes to expertise in politics and policymaking,” he said.
After Oxford, Singh worked with an international telecom company before he returned to India in 2015 and was hired by the AAP’s Punjab unit as a policy consultant.
“During my tenure as a consultant, I realised there is an immense opportunity to do good work for public welfare by joining the AAP. So, I officially joined the party,” said Singh, who also operated a makeshift school at Delhi’s Singhu border during the farmers’ agitation.
Of the 12 doctors who have become AAP legislators in Punjab, two are pulmonologists, four are ophthalmologists and one is a general surgeon, according to the party’s records.
Among them is Dr Charanjit Singh, who defeated former CM Channi in the latter’s traditional seat Chamkaur Sahib. Channi contested from both Bhadaur and Chamkaur Sahib.
Amandeep Arora, the candidate from Moga — who defeated the Congress’ Malvika Sood, sister of actor Sonu Sood — is also a doctor.
Three assembly segments in Amritsar elected doctors — Amritsar South, Amritsar West and Amritsar Central.
“Having doctors as poll candidates contributed immensely to the party’s agenda of ‘politics of change’. People relate to doctors. They are respected in society. Most of the doctors the party gave tickets to are also social workers and have been associated with the party for a while,” a senior AAP leader told ThePrint.
Anmol Gagan Mann, who won from the Kharar seat, and Balkar Sidhu, who won from Rampura Phul, are both popular singers. While Mann joined the AAP in 2020, Sidhu has had a political career marked by changing party affiliations. He is believed to be a friend of CM-designate Bhagwant Mann, but quit the AAP to join the Congress in 2016. However, he returned to the AAP last year, according to party records.
“Both Anmol (Gagan Mann) and (Balkar) Sidhu are immensely popular among people. There was never any second doubt about giving them party tickets,” said the senior party leader.
AAP’s Rupnagar MLA-elect is Ropar-based advocate Dinesh Chadha, an RTI activist who shot to fame in 2014 after an exposé on alleged illegal sand mining by some leaders of regional party SAD.
Senior AAP functionaries in Punjab said these candidates were given tickets due to their expertise in their respective domains, as well as their outreach as mass leaders in their areas. While some of them funded their own campaigns, others kept their campaign low-key, but still succeeded because of the “wave of change” that was evident in Punjab, said a senior AAP leader.
What pulled them towards AAP
AAP’s Kartarpur MLA-elect Balkar Singh, who retired in 2021 as the deputy commissioner of police in Tarn Taran district, said he chose the party because it is a “transparent and honest organisation”, and he sees a “very good man” in Arvind Kejriwal.
“As a police officer, I had the power to bring justice to the poor. I would listen to the problems citizens go through, and had the power to resolve some of them. I am hoping the same happens as I join the AAP,” said Singh, adding that he is going to “implement all the guarantees Arvind Kejriwal has given to the people of Punjab”.
“We’re members of Kejriwal’s team, which has promised to work for the benefit of the people of Punjab,” he added.
AAP’s MLA-elect from Attari, Jaswinder Singh, retired as additional deputy commissioner of rural development in the Punjab government in 2011, but comes from a family with a long association with politics. His father was an Akali Dal MLA between 1997 and 2002, he said.
In 2011, he joined the Congress, but quit in 2019 to join the AAP, which, according to him, is a “democratic party”.
“Currently, no other party even knows what’s the preamble of the Constitution,” Singh said, adding that he sees the AAP as a party “of the people, for the people and by the people”.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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