Dhaliwal’s wings clipped two years ago before he was finally dropped

He was inducted into Mann’s Cabinet holding important portfolio of agriculture and farmers’ welfare and rural development minister during his first Cabinet expansion. Soon after taking over, he had started reclaiming the government land, allegedly in possession of private persons. In May 2023, he was divested of both the departments and handed over an insignificant department of NRI Affairs and Administrative Reforms.

After he was shown the door from the Cabinet, Dhaliwal said, “I had surrendered my US citizenship to come back to Punjab. I left my children in California to come back here and serve the state. I have been with AAP for 10 years. I have been with Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann for over a decade. I was asked to resign today as they said they wanted to give an opportunity to other leaders. I immediately agreed. I am not here for any post. I have worked 24X7 without taking any leave from AAP during the last 10 years. I will continue to do so.”

As agriculture minister, Dhaliwal had been holding talks with protesting farmers in different parts of the state. “He had his own style. He would talk to them nicely and then even take a hard stand. This had helped the government in sorting out several agitations during his tenure as agri minister,” an official of the government recalled.

An AAP source said that Dhaliwal, representing the Ajnala constituency in the Majha area, has been removed to show the voters of Taran Tarn that a vacancy is being kept in the Cabinet for a minister from Majha. Tarn Taran is headed for an Assembly bypoll after the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh last week.

He said, “I had reclaimed 11,000 acres of land from the clutches of land grabbers. It was worth Rs 2,400 crore. I have always worked hard. As NRIs minister, I had solved NRIs’ 4,000 cases. I organised NRI milnis. I will continue to work hard.”

On February 22, 2025, he was divested of the charge of administrative reforms, with the government issuing a notification reading, “In partial modification of Punjab government notification No. 2/1/2022-2 Cabinet/2230 dated 23.09.2024, regarding allocation of portfolios among ministers, the Department of Administrative Reforms earlier allotted to Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Cabinet Minister is not in existence as on date. Therefore on the advice of the Chief Minister, the Governor is pleased to make the amendment w.e.f. 07-02-2025.”

The government notification came after Dhaliwal sought clarity on his portfolio as the Department of Administrative Reforms he had been allotted did not have a secretary. For nearly two years, he had been seeking a secretary for his department. He never got one, but the department was notified as non-existent. Less than five months later, the only portfolio he had been left with — NRI affairs — was also taken away, paving the way for his departure from the Cabinet.

The government had a department of governance reforms. It has been renamed as the Department of Information Technology and is held by minister and AAP state chief Aman Arora.

Dhaliwal, who was earlier a confidant of the then PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa, joined the AAP in the presence of the AAP’s then state convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur in 2015.

He was earlier the chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board when Rajinder Kaur Bhattal was the Punjab chief minister. As a student, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and remained on the hit list of terrorists for his anti-militancy stand. In the late 1990s, he joined the Congress but quit politics and moved to the US. He returned in early 2010s and rejoined the Congress.