The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced the name of Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal as the party’s chief spokesperson more than four months after he was divested as a Cabinet minister in July.

The announcement came on the day the AAP retained the Tarn Taran Assembly by-election, with its candidate Harmeet Singh Sandhu defeating his nearest rival and SAD nominee Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa by a margin of 12,091 votes.

Party senior spokesperson Neel Garg and journalist-turned-AAP leader Baltej Pannu were in the race for the post for the past couple of weeks.

From heading a department that never existed to becoming the chief AAP spokesperson, Dhaliwal’s relationship with AAP goes back to 2015, when he joined the AAP and remained a diligent party worker. After his removal from the Cabinet, he had stated that “posts do not matter to me as I am just a loyal worker of the party, who is in love with Punjab”.

Dhaliwal is considered close to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. When he was removed from the Cabinet, it was stated that Mann was not able to retain his loyalists.

Dhaliwal had surrendered his US citizenship to return to Punjab and contested in politics. In the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections, Dhaliwal won the Ajnala constituency and was inducted into Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s Cabinet, holding key portfolios like Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development & Panchayats, and NRI Affairs.

However, his tenure as a Cabinet minister was not without turbulence. In May 2023, a Cabinet reshuffle stripped him of his Agriculture and Rural Development portfolios, leaving him with the NRI Affairs and the newly allocated Department of Administrative Reforms. The Administrative Reforms Department, however, turned out to be non-existent, with no budget, no officers and no staff.

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After nearly 20 months, a government notification formally removed this defunct portfolio, leaving Dhaliwal with only the NRI Affairs. His exit from the Cabinet came in July, when he was asked to resign during a reshuffle and he resigned.

Dhaliwal stated that he was stepping down voluntarily. “Punjab comes first for me; the post is not important. The party want to give newer leaders a chance, and I accepted it in the spirit of service.”

Despite ups and downs, Dhaliwal’s loyalty to the AAP remained intact. “I will continue working for the betterment of Punjab without taking a break,” he said after leaving the Cabinet, emphasising: “My commitment to the party is unshaken.”

After his removal from the Cabinet, Dhaliwal was seen on the ground during the 2025 floods in Punjab. As the MLA of Ajnala, a region flooded by the Ravi, he met panchayat leaders, farmers and border residents, took stock of the flood situation, and even coordinated with BSF officers stationed at the embankments. He even used his own tractor in rescue operations and was seen wading through water.