Punjab bypolls: Gurdeep Singh Bathh, the rebel who cost AAP its Barnala seat
AAP’s rebel candidate Gurdeep Singh Bathh contested as an Independent and bagged 16,899 votes in the Barnala bypolls.
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Congress MLA Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon after winning from Barnala assembly constituency.The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost the high-profile Barnala Assembly seat in Punjab by a narrow margin of 2,157 votes with the bypoll results declared on Saturday revealing that party rebel Gurdeep Singh Bathh may have played a big role in its defeat. Bathh, who contested as an Independent candidate, bagged an impressive 16,899 votes.
Congress’s Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon won the Barnala seat, considered an AAP bastion, by defeating the ruling party’s Harinder Singh Dhaliwal. BJP’s Kewal Singh Dhillon came third with 17,958 votes, followed by Bathh.
Bathh, 40, had joined AAP in 2016 after resigning from his job at a private college. “I was the founder member of AAP and was appointed district president in 2018 and continued to remain so till I resigned in October after the party picked a candidate close to Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer,” Bathh had told The Indian Express during his campaign. “Now, Meet Hayer says that the candidate is not his cousin, but in 2017, we used to introduce him to villagers as Meet Hayer’s ‘maasi da munda’ (maternal cousin),” he had added.
The day AAP announced its tickets for the bypolls, Bathh had questioned the party’s decision to nominate Harinder Singh Dhaliwal from Barnala. A top contender for the Barnala seat, Bathh resigned from the primary membership of AAP in October and decided to contest the bypolls as an Independent.
Ironically, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann campaigned in Barnala but did not speak against Bathh; a favour the rebel returned.
“Bathh could not win but he made AAP lose. His entire campaign was against Meet Hayer and his so-called ‘maasi da munda’ Dhaliwal,” a supporter of Bathh said after the results were out.
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