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‘Disillusioned by party decision’, AAP Barnala chief Bathh to contest bypoll as Independent

Gurdeep Singh Bathh on Sunday said he would wait for 24 hours for the party to change the decision.

Gurdeep Singh Bathh to contest against AAP’s Harinder Singh Dhaliwal Dhaliwal as an Independent. (Express Photo)

A day after the Aam Aadmi Party gave a ticket to Harinder Singh Dhaliwal, considered close to Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, party district president and district planning board chairman Gurdeep Singh Bathh Monday announced to contest the Barnala Assembly bypoll against Dhaliwal as an Independent.

Bathh told The Indian Express, “Tickets to contest polls are given to party workers, not relatives or family members. I expected the party to change its decision. Since it has not been changed, I have decided to contest as an Independent after a thorough discussion with my supporters. The AAP needs to look back and see the principles on which the party was formed.”

He said, “I joined the party in 2015, and worked with Hayer in the 2017 and 2022 elections. I was appointed the district president in 2018 and have been holding the position till now. I need to know about Dhaliwal’s achievement He is a close friend of the MP, that’s it. The party made me work in Haryana and Gujarat and wherever they asked. For how many days Dhaliwal has worked in the organisational structure of the party? He needs to explain this. I am totally disillusioned by the party’s choice.”

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“I was a lecturer in a college before joining the AAP. I left my job only for a ‘badlav’ in the system,” said Bathh, who has started campaigning in villages.

Bathh on Sunday said he would wait for 24 hours for the party to change the decision.

On Sunday, the AAP declared candidates for the bypolls in Barnala, Gidderbaha, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak. These bypolls were necessitated after the four sitting MLAs won the Lok Sabha elections and vacated their Assembly seats.
Hayer was an MLA from Barnala and a Punjab minister too. However, he won the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat in June 2024.

Bathh, meanwhile, claimed that Hayer had a lead of over 15,000 in the Lok Sabha elections in Barnala assembly constituency because he worked hard in Barnala.Hayer had won with a margin of more than 1.75 lakhs in the Lok Sabha.

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