Senior Punjab Cong leader Raj Kumar Chabbewal quits party, joins AAP

Chandigarh, Mar 15 (PTI) In a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, senior party leader from Punjab and MLA Raj Kumar Chabbewal on Friday quit the party and joined the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

The 54-year-old Chabbewal said he has quit as a legislator from Chabbewal assembly constituency in Hoshiarpur district.The prominent Dalit leader was the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly.

He joined the AAP here and was welcomed into the party fold by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Chabbewal is the second Congress leader from Punjab to join the AAP within a week. Gurpreet Singh GP, a former Congress MLA from Bassi Pathana, had recently joined the AAP.

In a post in Punjabi on X, the AAP state unit said the party has been further strengthened with the joining of Chabbewal.

Impressed by the pro-people policies of Bhagwant Mann, Chabbewal, who is an MLA, has joined AAP. Many many congratulations to him from the party, the AAP posted along with photos of Chabbewal being welcomed by the CM.

Sources said the AAP may field Chabbewal from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat.

Earlier, Chabbewal had posted on X, "Resigned today from INC and Legislative Assembly Punjab." "I tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress with immediate effect," wrote Chabbewal in his letter to the Congress president, which he also posted on X.

However, he did not mention any reason for quitting the party.

In another letter to the Punjab Assembly Speaker, which he also posted on X, Chabbewal, wrote, "I hereby submit my resignation from membership of legislative assembly, Punjab, with immediate effect".

The MLA was re-elected from Chabbewal in the 2022 State Assembly elections.

Hailing from Punjab's Doaba region, Chabbewal had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur on a Congress ticket but had lost to the BJP's Som Prakash. PTI