Chhotepur joins shiromani akali dal

Chhotepur joins shiromani akali dal

Kanwar Inder singh/ royalpatiala.in

Aapna Punjab Party (APP) and Aam admi party’s Punjab ex-president, Sucha Singh Chhotepur joins Shiromani Akali Dal today at Chandigarh. SAD party president Sukhbir Singh Badal himself inducted Chhotepur into party fold.

He may contest Punjab assembly elections from Batala constituency as till date shiromani akali dal  has not declared its candidate from this segment and its sitting MLA Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal has been shifted to the nearby Fatehgarh Churian seat.

Chhotepur was appointed as state convener of the AAP by Arvind Kejriwal. He unsuccessfully contested 2014 Lok Sabha polls on the AAP ticket from Gurdaspur seat.

After leaving AAP, Chhotepur floated his own party Aapna Punjab Party (APP) few weeks before the 2017 Punjab assembly elections. He and his party fail miserably in 2017 assembly elections.

Chhotepur is son in law of Shiromani Akali Dal President Mohan Singh Tur. He was elected sarpanch of Chhotepur village in Majha region of Punjab in 1975.

Prior to this, Chhotepur remained Punjab minister during the Surjit Singh Barnala-led Akali government. He resigned along with Capt Amarinder Singh as minister from the Surjit Singh Barnala cabinet in 1986 to protest against Punjab Police entering the Golden Temple.

Chhotepur contested state assembly elections five times and won twice from Dhariwal, first as a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate in 1985 and then as an independent in 2002.

In 2009, Chhotepur joined the Indian National Congress in presence of Captain Amarinder Singh in Gurdaspur. He help Partap Singh Bajwa to defeat Vinod Khanna of Bharatiya Janta Party by 8,342 votes.

December 9,2021