Punjab AAP leader who defected to BJP seeks to withdraw his resignation as MLA

Speaker Sandhwan confirmed to The Indian Express on Sunday that he had received a letter from Angural. A decision on his request will be taken later, he added.

Sources said the AAP would take a call on the development as the anti-defection law would come into effect with his resignation from the party.

Jalandhar was witness to a multi-cornered contest on June 1 among the Congress’s Charanjit Singh Channi, the BJP’s Sushil Kumar Rinku, the AAP’s Pawan Kumar Tinu and the SAD’s Mohinder Singh Kaypee.

While joining BJP, Angural stated that he had been tired of the AAP.

A day after Angural defected to the BJP, pictures surfaced on social media showing him hugging Manish alias Mani Thakur of Jalandhar, an alleged kingpin of a UK-based drug cartel busted by Jalandhar police in March.

Angural then said Mani Thakur had helped him with his campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections but went abroad 10 months before. “Now, I do not know what he was doing after moving abroad. That is not my responsibility,” he had stated.

Angural has been in the midst of other controversies as well. He had cases of gambling, kidnapping and wrongfully confining a minor registered against him. He was also booked under Excise Act, Arms Act and the IT Act in different police stations in Jalandhar and Dera Bassi.

In January he was acquitted in the kidnapping case, where he was booked in 2020 along with others for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting a 15-year-old boy. In December last year, he was acquitted in the gambling case.

In his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the 2022 Assembly polls, Angural said there were nine FIRs against him. These cases were registered under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating) and the Arms Act.