94 AAP MLAs in House, but 95 sign petition to President: Who is 95th ‘AAP MLA’ Sukhwinder Sukhi

Sukhi was not a part of the delegation of MLAs led by Mann that went to national Capital. He also did not attend a special session of Vidhan Sabha called last week in which Mann tabled a confidence motion and won.

An activist-lawyer, HC Arora, first submitted a petition on September 4, 2024 before Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan seeking Sukhi’s disqualification under Anti-Defection Law.

While Arora’s plea was still under consideration, the AAP government on January 10, 2025, appointed

Sukhi as the chairman of the Punjab State Container and Warehousing Corporation (CONWARE) with a Cabinet rank.

Arora later moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking time-bound directions to Speaker to decide his plea. The high court on November 18 last year directed the Punjab government to file a reply on Arora’s application. As the matter came up for hearing, the government had orally opposed the PIL asserting that the petitioner had no locus standi. The SAD, which could be termed as aggrieved party, did not file any petition seeking Sukhi’s disqualification. Arora contended that Vidhan Sabha Rules governing issue of disqualification made it clear that all persons had locus standi.

Sources in the Vidhan Sabha said that the Speaker had summoned Sukhi several times in the past. “But sometimes, the Speaker was not available and at others Sukhi had to go somewhere. Hence, the hearing kept getting postponed,” said a source.

Speaker Sandhwan said the case was at the hearing stage, “We are conducting the hearings. Decision will be taken soon.”

An ENT specialist who runs his own hospital in Nawanshahr, Sukhi had started his political journey with the Bahujan Samaj Party, which fielded him from Hoshiarpur parliamentary seat during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Though he lost, Sukhi managed to poll over 1.05 lakh votes. Following differences within the BSP, Sukhi jumped ship to the SAD in 2012 and the party later appointed him Chairman of the Punjab Planning Board. The SAD fielded him from Banga in 2017 Assembly poll. He won, but continued his medical practice. H retained Banga in 2022, even as the Askali Dal suffered a rout and ended with winning only three of the 117 seats. He was the only SAD candidate to win from the Doaba region, which has 23 Assembly seats. The next year, SAD fielded him for the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, which was necessitated following the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary. Sukhi, however, lost to the AAP’s Sushil Rinku.

In August 2024, he formally joined the AAP and was welcomed into the party by CM Mann and the then national general secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak. At the time, Sukhi was the Deputy leader of the SAD Legislative Party in the Vidhan Sabha.

Joining the AAP, Sukhi had said that he was impressed when Mann opted to get sworn in as CM at Khatkar Kalan, the native village of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. “I am honoured that I am going to be a soldier of AAP. My constituency has Bhagat Singh’s native land. I had the opportunity to work with BSP founder Kanshi Ram. I was impressed with the CM after he announced a medical college in my constituency. I was impressed with him when he shifted a Naib Tehsildar when I raised with the CM the issue of his involvement in corruption,” Sukhi had said while embracing AAP.

Sukhi’s quitting the SAD had come as major setback to the Panthic party, which has already been pushed to the fringes. The SAD is now left with only two MLAs — Ganieve Kaur Majithia (Majitha) and Manpreet Singh Ayali (Dakha).

Earlier this year, Sukhi created a stir, when he resigned as chairman of the CONWARE after Mann claimed that 169 saroops of the Guru Granth Sahib had been found at the Rasokhana Nabh Kanwal Raja Sahib Gurdwara in Banga during an ongoing investigation into matter pertaining to 328 missing saroops. Sukhi announced his resignation on Facebook, saying he would try to convince Mann and the ruling AAP’s leadership about the “sanctity” of the gurdwara. Later, AAP had issued a clarification and Sukhi’s resignation was not accepted.

At the time SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema had said that Sukhi should have first resigned as MLA instead of quitting as the CONWARE chairman. “As he no longer subscribes to the SAD ideology, he should first quit as an MLA, which is the primary mandate that he holds which he secured by winning the Assembly elections,” Cheema had said.