Man of the moment: A Cong rebel who joined AAP in April, granted ticket 24 hrs later

Rinku, 47, forayed into politics in 2017, contesting from the Jalandhar West Assembly constituency (reserved) constituency. He ended up winning over the BJP’s Mahinder Pal Bhagat, the son of three-time MLA and former minister Bhagat Chuni Lal, by a margin of over 17,000 votes. However, in the 2022 election, Rinku was defeated by AAP candidate Sheetal Angural by a margin of 4,254 votes.

After joining the AAP at an event attended by party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on April 5, Rinku, who derives his support from the Scheduled Caste community in Jalandhar, said he was impressed by the policies of the party. “My only motive to join the AAP is to serve the people of Punjab,” he added.

And the move to the AAP came with its perks.

In less that 24 hours after joining the AAP, Rinku was named a candidate for the Jalandhar bypoll. The AAP is said to have picked him because of his popularity with the area. This is crucial as the AAP does not have a cadre in Jalandhar that other parties have built over the years.

Rinku has been politically active since his student days. He was a member of the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the Congress’s student wing.

He has also been working as a booth-level worker from the 1992 Assembly election. In 2006, he was elected a councillor in the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation. He has since been playing an active role in several city-based projects.

His family too has been allied to the Congress for over four decades. His father Ram Lal also served as a councillor of the Jalandhar Corporation in 1997 and then in 2002. Rinku’s wife Sunita Rinku also won the post in 2007.

Rinku’s inclusion to the AAP is also said to have upsetted other leaders within the party. These are said to be supporters of Angural who had been lobbying for a Lok Sabha seat for Angural’s brother Rajan Angural.